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Rory McIlroy relishes the mano a mano combat of raw matchplay, and the Northern Irishman – seeking to defend his title – was forced to demonstrate all those survival instincts to see off American Kevin Na in the WGC-Dell Matchplay Championship in Austin, Texas.
It required a sudden-death playoff to move on out of the group, but McIlroy ensured his progress into the last-16 and a match with British Open champion Zach Johnson. McIlroy, unbeaten in his last 10 WGC matchplay matches, is trying to become the first player since Tiger Woods (2003 and 2004) to win back-to-back titles.
“I had to dig pretty deep, Kevin’s a very good competitor and he wasn’t giving me much out there, so I holed a few long putts and I kept it together when I needed to . . .for the most part, I played pretty good. I responded to some of his good shots with good shots myself and that gives me some confidence going into the weekend,” said McIlroy afterwards.
In a way, McIlroy got the worst of any swing glitches out of the way early: a double-bogey six on the 446 yards Par 4 second – when his tee shot was pushed into the right rough and his approach found a greenside bunker from where he failed to find the putting surface – gave Na the impetus.
And the American went two-up on the world number three when his lob wedge approach to three feet on the fifth set up a birdie three. McIlroy responded with a tee shot to eight feet for birdie on the seventh and then won the ninth to level matters at the turn.
Again, McIlroy was forced to play catch-up when Na won the 10th and the Northern Irishman showed he was up for the battle when he rolled in a 30-footer for birdie on the Par 3 11th and then assumed the lead for the first time in the match when he rolled in a four-and-a-half footer.
However, he played the Par 5 16th poorly and almost salvaged a half when his pitch for birdie hit the hole but stayed out as Na levelled affairs.
Both McIlroy and Na halved the first playoff hole in pars but the match swung in the Ulsterman’s favour when his opponent pulled his tee shot into the hazard and was forced to take a penalty drop. He then put his third shot into a greenside bunker and a par was sufficient for McIlroy to close the deal.
Of facing Johnson, McIlroy said: “This is a course that sets up well for Zach, a precision sort of course and if he gets the ball in play he will be hard to beat. My matchplay game is pretty good and no matter what he does I will have to respond to it.”
Shane Lowry’s disappointing campaign finished with a 4 and 3 defeat to British Open champion Johnson, who won all three of his matches.
Johnson’s form was such that he never got beyond the 15th green in any of his matches and, so, after defeating Lowry, the American decided to finish off by playing the 16th, 17th and 18th holes on his own. “I hadn’t seen those holes since Tuesday,” explained Johnson.
“Shane didn’t have his best but rallied at the end and gave it a fight,” he added.
For Lowry, it is a case of moving on to next week’s Houston Open, his final preparation tournament ahead of the Masters.
Hot streaks can turn cold, as Adam Scott – after two wins on the Florida Swing – discovered in failing to escape from his group, after the Australian was trumped by Bill Haas who won by one hole to advance into the last 16.
“I can’t be upset I lost the match playing like that,” said Scott after his exit, shaking his head at what had been an unpredictable match in which no hole was halved from the seventh to the 18th. Over the last seven holes, the pair factored in five birdies and an eagle between them.
Haas, who had only required a halved match to move on to the knockout phase, duly secured a morale-boosting win when he rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on the 18th to rub salt into Scott’s wounds.
There was a much smoother transition from the group stage to the knockout phase for Jason Day who recovered from the back injury that flared up on Wednesday and which had threatened his participation.
He made it three wins from three in the group when his opponent Paul Casey withdrew after just six holes of the final group match. Casey had been battling an upset stomach all week. Although the Englishman won the opening two holes, Day had levelled the match by the sixth when Casey decided to call it a day .
SATURDAY ROUND OF 16 TEE TIMES
12.30pm Bill Haas v Chris Kirk
12.41pm Rory McIlroy v Zach Johnson
12.52pm Matt Kuchar v Brooks Koepka
1.03pm Jason Day v Brandt Snedeker
1.14pm Byeong-Hun An v Rafael Cabrera-Bello
1.25pm Patton Kizzirev Ryan Moore
1.36pm Dustin Johnson v Patrick Reed
1.47pm Jordan Spieth v Louis Oosthuizen
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