44-year-old Furyk raising his game

Finally, for the first time in his long career, Jim Furyk finds himself in the semifinals of the Match Play Championship.

Furyk, the fifth-ranked player in the world, advanced with a 4-and-2 victory over fellow major champion Louis Oosthuizen in Saturday’s quarterfinals. That put Furyk in a curious position, leaving Harding Park not knowing his next opponent: Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey must complete their suspended match Sunday morning.

The winner will meet Furyk, who turns 45 next week and is putting together a tidy run. He picked up his first PGA Tour victory in more than five years April 19, when he won the event in Hilton Head, S.C.

Now, in his 15th start in Match Play, he stands two matches from another tour win. So, yes, he likes the new format.

“I like it better than in the past,” Furyk said. “That’s a little bit of a homer thing, too, because I’ve never made it this far.” Format chatter: Speaking of the format ...

Jordan Spieth suggested three rounds of stroke play, with the top 16 golfers advancing to match play on the weekend. Lee Westwood prefers to see players earn a half-point for round-robin matches that are all-square after 18 holes. Ian Poulter bemoaned his meaningless match Friday.

Not surprisingly, many players voiced an opinion on this event’s new group-play arrangement.

One motive for the change was to give the best players a better chance of moving deeper into the tournament. That didn’t work so well: Only two of the world’s top 29 players (McIlroy and Furyk) reached Saturday’s quarterfinals. Fowler falls: Rickie Fowler could have pumped some excitement into the weekend, given his popularity among young spectators. But Fowler, after wiping away a sizable deficit against Oosthuizen in Saturday morning’s round of 16, made a mess of the final hole. Oosthuizen won 1-up.

Oosthuizen held a 3-up lead after 10 holes, only to see Fowler catch him. The match was deadlocked going to No. 18, a par-5. Oosthuizen hit a tremendous second shot (from thick rough onto the green) and Fowler hit a terrible second shot (from the fairway into nasty stuff right of the green).

Fowler needed two more shots to hack his way onto the putting surface. Then, when he missed his par putt, he conceded the hole and match.