Mickelson makes 6 straight birdies, 2 shots back at Safeway Open

AUSTIN, Texas — Three Americans and one Swede — or if you prefer, three ex-Southeastern Conference players and one from the Big 12. Those are the survivors who have advanced to the final day of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play The Sunday morning semifinals at Austin Country Club begin at 10 a.m. ET with Justin Thomas facing Bubba Watson, followed by Alex Noren vs. Kevin Kisner at 10:15 a.m. The winners will face off in the championship match Sunday afternoon. Noren — a Swede who graduated from Oklahoma State — will try to prevent an All-American final, while an All-Georgia Bulldog final could develop if Kisner and Watson win. Meanwhile, Alabama’s Justin Thomas, currently No. 1 in the world, could also move to world No. 1 if he beats Watson. Here’s a breakdown of each semifinal match: Justin Thomas vs. Bubba Watson Bubba Watson was supposed to go out of the country on vacation tomorrow. Due to the sheer uncertainty of match play, Watson bought plane tickets, never realizing that he would make it to the semifinals for the second time in eight Match Play appearances. “I figured I wasn’t going to make it, so I went ahead and scheduled a vacation,” said Watson, seeded 35th this week. “So I’ve got to call my wife now and tell her that I’m going to be a day late.” Instead of relaxing 40,000 feet up in the air, Watson will go head-to-head with Justin Thomas in a semifinal match that has extra significance for the second-ranked player in the world. Getting past Watson would guarantee Thomas the No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career. In an interesting twist of fate, Sunday’s match against Thomas will be the second time Watson has gone up against a player who needed a win to secure the No. 1 ranking. The last time was back in 2011 when Watson lost to Martin Kaymer in the Match Play semifinals. That win secured Kaymer the No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career. “I guess I’m good at that,” Watson said. “If you want No. 1, just beat me, and you’ll be No. 1.” Watson appears to be up for the challenge based on the way he’s played this week. After making it through the group stage, Watson held off Brian Harman in the Round of 16 before taking down good friend Kiradech Aphibarnrat in 15 holes. Watson went 1 down early in his match against Harman but never trailed against Aphibarnat. Thomas has been on a similar run this week. Before he went 1 down on the second hole against Kyle Stanley in the quarterfinals, Thomas had not trailed all week. Playing the role of front-runner has suited the 24-year-old well, who needed just 13 holes to take down Si Woo Kim before ending Kyle Stanley’s week, 2 and 1. Thomas was on the fence about playing in Austin following the removal of his wisdom teeth, which turned into a sore throat — a doctor told him it was likey strep throat — that saw him lose six pounds. “I had a pretty serious conversation with my dad on Monday if I was going to play,” Thomas said. “I never want to play in a tournament, first off if it’s going to hurt my health. If I was sick or really sick, me trying to play this week wasn’t going to do me any good. But also if I feel like I don’t have a chance to win, it’s also really — to me, I don’t understand the point of playing if I don’t feel like I can.” With the help of antibiotics, Thomas has regained his strength and has the look of someone who won the Honda Classic and finished runner-up in Mexico in his last two starts. On the verge of becoming No. 1, Thomas is relishing that possibility that it could happen tomorrow. “I don’t know what’s going to come with it,” Thomas said of the No. 1 ranking. “But I just hope it happens tomorrow.” Alex Noren vs. Kevin Kisner Alex Noren has played with Kevin Kisner only once since the two turned professional, but there’s a history between the players that dates back to their time at the University of Georgia and Oklahoma State University. Playing at two golf powerhouses around the same time meant Kisner and Noren saw a lot of each other. While Noren couldn’t recall who got the better of those battles on the course, he’ll have the chance to take on Kisner in a match that would move him one step closer to earning his first PGA TOUR victory. He’s looked the part of a player who’s on the verge of finding the winner’s circle this season, with a runner-up finish at the Farmers Insurance Open and a third-place showing at the Honda Classic. Then there’s the impressive run he’s been on this week that’s seen him go 9-1 in his last 10 matches at the event, dating back to last year. “I’ve always liked match play because I think it’s very — the outcome is quite direct,” Noren said. “Four days, sometimes it can — you can go through holes that maybe mentally you’re a little bit out of it and then you get into it when it’s 72 holes. “In match play, you’ve just got to be really focused all the time and anything can happen. And then you have to play good each round. You can’t just give up a round and then think you’ve got three more. Maybe that’s what I need to do in stroke play, as well, not give a round away. I’ve always liked it. You can be a little bit more aggressive.” Noren will face an in-form Kisner who recently found something with his game. Everything has clicked this week, as Kisner made eight birdies in a win against Matt Kuchar before rolling past Ian Poulter in the quarterfinals, 8 and 6. “A lot of range balls, a lot of time,” Kisner said. “I haven’t been very confident throughout the bag all year. Sometimes you have to get a little worse before you get better. We’re always trying to improve. And I’m not sure if I needed to. “It’s starting to click now. I started seeing some stuff on Tuesday. I played nine holes with Daniel Berger and started seeing good stuff that I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. That was starting to build the confidence there. And throughout the week I’ve gained a lot more confidence.” Confidence could be key in a match between two of the hottest putters in the field. Noren currently leads the field in strokes gained: putting this week while Kisner ranks fourth in the statistical category.

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Wesley Bryan had a confession to make after carding a second-round 66 to get to 8 under and in contention at the RBC Heritage presented by Boeing. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tee times | RBC Heritage kicks off Carolina Swing As a kid, on family vacations, he snuck onto Harbour Town Golf Links. Just a time or two. Nothing crazy. OK, maybe it was more than that. “I’ll be honest,” he said, “we snuck out here way more often than we probably should. We would walk out to the 10th tee and just start playing holes as kids. “Yeah, a lot of hours have been spent out here, whether they knew about them or not.” It’s fitting that Harbour Town would be the site of a mini resurgence for Bryan, given that he authored his lone PGA TOUR victory here in 2017. The Columbia, South Carolina, native and former University of South Carolina star is a popular figure around here. Even the home crowd, though, could be excused for wondering where he’s been. Bryan, 31, is 172nd in the FedExCup, 429nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, after missing five of eight cuts this season. He’s playing on a Major Medical Extension with nine starts remaining after undergoing surgery for a torn labrum in his left shoulder in January 2019. “I’ll be on a little hiatus,” he wrote on Twitter then, “but don’t worry I’ll be back.” He was coming off four straight missed cuts and a WD the previous fall. It was time. But it’s taken a while for Bryan to get back. A little hiatus? He made just nine combined starts in 2019 and 2020. “Shoulder is great,” he said after his second round, which included an eagle 3 at the second hole, plus five birdies and two bogeys. “I been feeling a lot better about the golf game than what the scores have been showing as of late. Post-surgery I picked up a lot of speed and started actually striking the ball well for the first time in my career, which was nice.” Bryan has always been streaky-good: He won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016. And he’s finally scoring, not just hitting the ball well. Now he just needs to keep it going through the weekend to become the first two-time Heritage winner since Jim Furyk (2015/2010). Asked what he learned from winning here four years ago, Bryan said the real lessons came earlier than that, on all those family trips to Harbour Town, which is more or less the same. “I’ve played this place a lot growing up,” he said. “It’s just one of the few stops even as a rookie on TOUR I felt very comfortable from day one. Not as much homework learning the golf course. “It’s more of just out here knowing where to miss it,” he continued. “You don’t necessarily have to drive the ball in the fairway out here to stay in position in the hole.” With that familiarity paying off, Bryan, too, is looking familiar – like the player he used to be.

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Tiger Woods had multiple “open fractures” to his lower right leg, had a rod placed in his tibia, and screws and pins inserted into his ankle, a doctor at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center said Tuesday night.

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