McIlroy match on hold
Quarterfinal vs. Casey suspended
Rory McIlroy had his own fight on his hands Saturday in the World Golf Championships-Match Play Championship against Paul Casey. It was such a battle that they had to return this morning to see who keeps playing.
McIlroy missed a 12-foot putt on the 18th hole and a 6-footer on the third extra hole that would have sent him into the semifinals. It was too dark to play another hole at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
Jim Furyk beat Louis Oosthuizen to make his first semifinal. He will face the winner of McIlroy-Casey.
Gary Woodland rolled through another opponent in beating John Senden to reach the semifinal against Danny Willett of England, who beat Tommy Fleetwood on the 15th hole.
McIlroy, who made only four birdies in narrowly getting out of group play, ran off four birdies in eight holes for a 5up lead in his Round of 16 match Saturday against Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama
“Definitely the best I’ve played scoring-wise,” McIlroy said about Matsuyama match. McIlroy had tickets for the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in Las Vegas. He teed off at 4 p.m. and needed to end the match against Casey perhaps even sooner than the Matsuyama match to get there on time, but that didn’t happen.
Other tournaments
Insperity Invitational: Michael Allen birdied the final two holes for a 4-under 68 and a one-stroke lead after the second round of this Champions Tour event in The Woodlands, Texas. Allen had a 10-under 134 total. He has seven victories on the 50and-over tour, winning twice in 2014. Joe Durant was second after a 68. He had a double bogey in the par-4 17th and rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 18th. Last week, he teamed with Billy Andrade to win the Legends of Golf in Missouri for his first Champions Tour title. Scott Dunlap, Woody Austin (66) and Tom Lehman (66) were 8 under. Dunlap had a 65, the best round of the day.
LPGA North Texas Shootout: Lexi Thompson finished a round of 3-under 68 with a birdie after a fortunate ricochet to share the third-round lead with Inbee Park in Irving, Texas. The approach by the long-hitting Thompson at the par-5 18th was a screamer well left of the hole. But the ball struck the front facing of a temporary grandstand and ricocheted onto the green, skimming just over the top of a bunker. That set up a long two-putt birdie to get to 9-under 204. Park had a more conventional closing birdie, hitting her approach inside a foot for a round of 69.