Cristie Kerr, Mo Martin and In Gee Chun each shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to share the lead after the opening round of the Kia Classic at Aviara. Kerr, the 2015 Kia champion, and Martin, a native of Southern California, were among the first groups to tee off. ”It was nice they all went in from there,” said Kerr, who closed with birdie-birdie.
Jordan Spieth felt a gust of wind as his tee shot was in the air and began pleading for it to get down. Brandt Snedeker brought a touch of class to an exasperating at the Dell Technologies Match Play. Snedeker gave him the putt to halve the hole.
AUSTIN, Texas – Notes and observations from Thursday’s Day 2 of the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play, where tough conditions made for some wild shots and some big stars were eliminated from contention. For more coverage from Austin Country Club, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. WIND WORRIES Charles Howell III blamed it for his shank, Phil Mickelson thought it was fun and Marc Leishman rode it to a 444-yard drive – the wind was wild at Austin Country Club. Gusts of up to 35mph lashed the course throughout Thursday’s matches making for some very tough shots. Had it not been match play, there would no doubt have been some big numbers on the cards. “I think it’s fun,” Mickelson beamed after his second straight win. “I mean, I think it’s a hard challenge. I think that given the severity of the greens and so forth, certainly there are holes we’re going to look ridiculous on. But in match play, you are not adding up every shot and if you happen to hit a bad one and make a bogey or double, it’s not that big a deal. It’s just relative to your opponent.” Howell III was one of those players to look ridiculous. Sitting in the greenside bunker at the par-3 17th with a 1-up lead over Rafa Cabrera Bello, Howell III knifed his ball into a ravine. “(Conditions are) difficult enough to cause a shank,” he said after rebounding to win the last hole and the match. “That was all the wind. It was a tough bunker shot and I was trying to hit a big ole flop shot in there and stop it. I was a bit numb playing the last hole after that.” Leishman topped a list of nine players to hit 400-plus yard drives on the downwind, downhill par-5 12th – one of the advantages of the day. “That’s all I’ve got,” he said of his 444-yard bomb. “It was fun to let it fly.” Reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year Dustin Johnson, no stranger to balls moving on the greens, admitted he was factoring the gusts into all his shots, even on the putting surface. “You had to play the wind in putts,” Johnson said. “So that made it difficult, especially around the back nine.” Jon Rahm, another winner, admitted to being baffled at times. “With this wind, it’s hard to control. We hit shots that we thought were perfect like the chip on 13 that went off the green. The second shot on 9. There was a couple of shots that we thought were going to be really, really good and we didn’t get the best of bounces or the best of luck or the outcome we hoped for.” IMPACT OF THE WDs With three players withdrawing from the event, some anomalies have popped up at Austin Country Club. Jason Day (family illness) has now been joined by Gary Woodland (family reasons) and Francesco Molinari (wrist injury) on the sidelines. Group 2: Woodland’s withdrawal ensured second seed Rory McIlroy’s elimination from contention. While he was gifted a win today, the fact Soren Kjeldsen gets a walk over win on Friday sees the 62nd seed go through. McIlroy would have needed Woodland to beat the Dane on Friday to have a chance. Group 3: With Day’s absence, his fellow Australian Marc Leishman does not have a match to play on Friday. However, if Lee Westwood can beat Pat Perez, the Bay Hill winner will need to be on site to be part of a 3-man sudden death playoff to advance. “I’ve only got myself to blame for being in the scenario,” Leishman said after he lost to Perez knowing a win would have seen him through to the round of 16. “I’ll come to the course an hour before Lee and Pat finish and see how it’s going; if I have to warm up, I will.” Group 8: The same scenario exists for Alex Noren, who now gets a walkover win over Molinari Friday, robbing Thongchai Jaidee and Bernd Wiesberger any chance of advancing. THURSDAY’S SUPERLATIVES Match of the Day – The Ryan Moore-Hideto Tanihara – the last match to conclude on Thursday — came down to the last hole and had five lead changes over the last seven holes. Moore was 3 up at one point on the front nine, but Tanihara pulled to all square on the 12th. Both players hit shots inside 11 feet on the 18th and made birdie to share the point. The match had even more significance as the result kept the door ajar for all four players in the group. Player of the Day – Brooks Koepka. He once again needed just 13 holes to close out his match. He’s recorded 12 total birdies over the first two days — tied with Soren Kjeldsen — and has never trailed in either match. To say Koepka is on a roll would be an understatement. Biggest upset – Ross Fisher, the 47th seed, knocking off No. 4 seed Hideki Matsuyama. Three of the top 10 seeds fell on the second day, but Matsuyama’s defeat came to the player with the lowest seed. The Englishman was ahead the entire way, winning the opening hole and extending his lead to 3 up at one point. Most birdies made – Bubba Watson made seven in 15 holes during his 4 and 3 win over Scott Piercy. Most holes won – Soren Kjeldsen and Tyrrell Hatton with eight in their victories over Emiliano Grillo and Jeunghun Wang. I had more footage left on my second putts than I maybe ever have had in my life. WHERE THEY ENDED A look at where each winner on Thursday ended his match. Obviously the fewer holes played, the fresher you may be if you advance to the weekend: 0 – McIlroy (Woodland WD), Westwood (Day WD) 13th – Koepka, Haas, 14th – Mickelson 15th – Jaidee, Schwartzel, Kjeldsen, Garcia 16th – Furyk, Noren, D Johnson, Walker, Na, Fitzpatrick, Spieth 17th – Vegas, Fisher, K.T. Kim, Snedeker, McGirt, Rahm, Perez 18th – Kisner, Z Johnson, Steele, Casey, Howell III, Hatton 18th (halved) – Holmes/Kim, Moore/Tanihara FATES OF A FEW A look at some of the players’ fates going into Friday (seeds in parentheses): Guaranteed to advance: Alex Noren (8), Soren Kjeldsen (62) Guaranteed at least a playoff: Dustin Johnson (1), Tyrrell Hatton (10), Bubba Watson (13), Phil Mickelson (14), Brooks Koepka (20), Kevin Na (46), William McGirt (48), Pat Perez (56), K.T. Kim (64) Eliminated: A total of 23 players have been eliminated, including Rory McIlroy (2), Jason Day (3), Hideki Matsuyama (4), Patrick Reed (9), Danny Willett (11), Matt Kuchar (16), Francesco Molinari (25), Emiliano Grillo (26), J.B. Holmes (31), Gary Woodland (33), Bernd Wiesberger (36), Kevin Chappell (38), Scott Piercy (39), Jeunghun Wang (40), Byeong Hun An (45), Chris Wood (49), Andy Sullivan (52), Shane Lowry (53), Thongchai Jaidee (57), Webb Simpson (58), Jason Dufner (59), Joost Luiten (60), Si Woo Kim (63) ODDS AND ENDS With his conceded win over Gary Woodland on Thursday, Rory McIlroy notched his 23rd career Match Play win, tied for third with Ian Poulter. His career record at this event is now 23-9-1. Tiger Woods has the most wins in tournament history with 33. … Of the nine players making their Match Play debut, three players — Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm and William McGirt have 2-0 records through two days … Playing against each other on Friday, Brooks Koepka (3-1-0) and Patrick Reed (3-1-1) combined for records of 6-2-1 at the 2016 Ryder Cup for the United States. Koepka is 2-0 this week while Reed is 0-1-1. … With his 3-and-2 loss to Matthew Fitzpatrick on Thursday, Chris Wood is now 0-7 in matches at this event. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA
As players from Team USA and Puerto Rico return to their MLB teams after an excellent three-week adventure, the good news is that Opening Day is right around the corner. So with that in mind, here are 10 questions that still need to be answered in the next 10 days.
Kjeldsen, Noren win groups at wild Match Play
AUSTIN, Texas — Phil Mickelson hit a simple chip toward the hole that never stopped until it was off the other side of the green and into the water. Jordan Spieth felt a gust of wind as his tee shot was in the air and began pleading for it to get down. He only stopped talking when he heard the crowd cheer and saw the ball 2 feet from the hole. Brandt Snedeker brought a touch of class to an exasperating at the Dell Technologies Match Play. He watched Andy Sullivan roll a putt to within 2 feet of the hole, only for the wind to blow back 7 feet away. Snedeker gave him the putt to halve the hole. “Pure class,” Sullivan said It was pure chaos Thursday at Austin Country Club, where 30 mph gusts raged through the edge of Hill Country and made conditions so brittle and blustery holes were won with bogeys. And it was just as wild trying to keep score thanks to two more players withdrawing. Soren Kjeldsen and Alex Noren won their groups, one round before group play is even finished. Rory McIlroy took the day off, and he’s already guaranteed the weekend off. The wind had nothing to do with a domino-effect of withdrawals that allowed Kjeldsen and Noren to get a day of rest Friday. One after Jason Day withdrew because his mother faces surgery for lung cancer, Gary Woodland pulled out because of a personal family matter. He was scheduled to play McIlroy in the second round, and while McIlroy was conceded a victory, he was eliminated four hours later when Kjeldsen won his second straight match. Kjeldsen was to play Woodland in the third round, so he was assured of winning the group at 3-0. And so ended McIlroy’s week — 17 holes on Wednesday when Kjeldsen beat him with four straight birdies, no golf on Thursday, and a meaningless match Friday. All that’s left is for McIlroy to decide whether to play the Shell Houston Open next week. He has played just 13 competitive rounds this year. Noren, meanwhile, had an easy time over Bernd Wiesberger for his second straight victory. He only had to beat Francesco Molinari on Friday, but then Molinari withdrew with a wrist injury, assuring Noren a 3-0 record and a spot in the knockout stage this weekend. Molinari pulling out also eliminated Wiesberger and Thongchai Jaidee, who get to face each other Friday with nothing at stake. Along with two players already advancing, 23 players from the 64-man field already are mathematically eliminated. On the golf course, it was all about surviving. Mickelson, who has made it past the third round only once in his 12 previous appearances at Match Play, has never trailed all week and had no trouble against Daniel Berger. But the wind was gusting to 30 mph, and the sun baked out greens that became like Texas hardpan. Berger was in the water on the par-5 12th and Mickelson was just right of the green in two. His pitch rolled — and rolled — beyond the flag, off the green and into the water. They halved with bogeys. “It happens,” Mickelson said. “I just didn’t think that we would have the course so severe where that shot would be a problem.” Still, Mickelson used a word seldom heard at Austin Country Club on Thursday. He said he had “fun.” Match play made it acceptable. Spieth stayed in the game with a 4-and-2 victory over Yuta Ikeda. They halved the 13th hole with double bogeys when Spieth hit into the water, and then Ikeda hit into the water. The wind was that strong, and it was even tougher on the greens. Dustin Johnson had another easy time as he tries to get in position for his third straight victory, but he still has one more match to claim his group. Ditto for Brooks Koepka, who has yet to see the last five holes in competition. Koepka has closed out both his matches on the 13th hole. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia both won two matches and now square off Friday to see which Spaniard wins the group. That also will be the case with Charl Schwartzel and Paul Casey, 2-0 in their groups and facing each other Friday. “Now we get into the meat of this thing,” Casey said. “For me, it’s straight knockout tomorrow. It’s enjoyable. That’s what I like, and everything is on the line.” Everything else is still up in the air. With round-robin play — head-to-head results do not apply in case of a tie — there’s a possibility of two-man, three-man, even four-man playoffs to decide who advances out of group play into single elimination on the weekend. Bay Hill winner Marc Leishman also had a chance to clinch his group if he had beaten Pat Perez, because Leishman was to face Day in the third round. Perez won on the 17th hole. If he doesn’t win his match Friday, he faces Leishman in a playoff. “I knew I had to win today. If not, Leish could go drink all night and get ready for Saturday,” Perez said. “Massive performance, I think, on my part today to get that done.”
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