Report: Rory driver ruled nonconforming at PGA

AUSTIN, Texas — Jon Rahm lost his match and still made it to the weekend. Scottie Scheffler needed only 14 holes to win his match against Matt Fitzpatrick, and then six more to beat him in a playoff. RELATED: Bracket, Scoring | Match recaps from Friday | Everybody on the Bland-wagon! The third full day of endless action in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play finally ended Friday when Collin Morikawa drove the green on a par 4, this one not nearly dramatic as his shot that won the PGA Championship but still effective in getting him through group play. Sixteen players remain for the knockout stage that begins Saturday morning, all of them knowing that three days of tense matches mean nothing going forward. “Now it’s real,” Abraham Ancer said after squeezing by Webb Simpson. “Now you’re for sure not advancing if you don’t win.” Rahm had that luxury by winning his opening two matches. He was sloppy on the back nine in losing to Patrick Reed, who played his best golf after already being eliminated. But the world’s No. 1 player avoided a playoff in his group when Cameron Young also lost. Seamus Power also lost his match, but by then he was already assured of winning his group. The Irishman got another reward: By reaching the fourth round, Power is assured of staying in the top 50 and getting into the Masters Tournament. Four of the groups were decided in extra holes. There are no tiebreakers, and three players who won their match had to return to the first tee for sudden death against the player they just beat. Scheffler had the toughest time. Takumi Kanaya felt the most fortunate. Scheffler had to beat Fitzpatrick to have any chance, and that was the easy part in a 5-and-4 victory. They had to wait more than two hours for all the matches to go off before their playoff began. They matched birdies on No. 1, pars on the next three holes and birdies on the fifth. Scheffler finally won on the par-5 sixth when he holed a 6-foot putt after Fitzpatrick missed from about 15 feet. “I knew the rules,” Scheffler said of going extra holes after beating Fitzpatrick in the match. “I didn’t know we had to wait so long to come back for the playoff. I was a bit surprised with that. I would have loved to have just kept going the way I was playing in the beginning, and Matt did a really good job of regrouping, and he came out and played some really nice golf in the playoff.” His reward is a match against Billy Horschel, who beat Scheffler in the championship match last year. Rahm faces Brooks Koepka, who narrowly avoided a playoff. Koepka was tied with Shane Lowry on the 18th when he hit a 45-yard pitch off packed dirt well left of the 18th green to 8 feet and made the birdie putt for a 1-up victory. Kanaya was in the same predicament as Scheffler. He had to beat Lucas Herbert of Australia, and he ended the match in 14 holes. On the first hole in the playoff, Kanaya found a fairway bunker and could only advance to some 90 yards short of the hole — Herbert with a good drive was just outside that with his second shot. Kanaya used the slope expertly for a shot to 2 feet, and Herbert three-putted from 18 feet above the hole to lose the match. Kanaya is No. 56, the lowest seed still playing, but not by much. And considering his going to the Masters in two weeks, he isn’t the biggest surprise. That would be Richard Bland of England, at 49 the oldest player in the field and the No. 54 seed this week. Bland started his Match Play debut by halving his match with Bryson DeChambeau. On Friday, he beat Lee Westwood to win the group. Bland last year became the oldest first-time winner in DP World Tour history. With one more match victory, he might be headed to his first Masters. “It’s just my time. That’s all I can put it down to,” Bland said. “But I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.” Will Zalatoris, known for his iron game, knocked out Viktor Hovland with his putter. Zalatoris made putts of 12 feet on the 16th and 18th holes, the last one giving him a 1-up victory to tie the Norwegian in group play. In the playoff, Zalatoris made a 10-foot birdie on No. 1 — Hovland made his from 6 feet — and another 10-footer on No. 2 to advance. Dustin Johnson, Kevin Kisner and Tyrrell Hatton were among five players who won all their matches. Kisner, who has won and been runner-up at the Match Play, looked tougher than ever in taking down Justin Thomas. Kisner was 6 under through six holes and shot 28 on the front nine to build a 5-up lead. He closed him out on the 15th hole. “It had to be a 10,” Kisner said when asked to rate his performance. He moved on to face Adam Scott, who had no trouble beating Jordan Spieth to advance to the weekend for the first time since 2005. His record isn’t as bad as that would suggest. “It’s hard to get there when I don’t play in the event,” Scott said with a smile. He hasn’t been to the Match Play since 2016.

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ORLANDO, Fla. – There was clearly a forward spin to the press conference Tuesday that brought Tiger Woods and Ernie Els together at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the icons having agreed to be captains for the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in Australia. It will be the 13th edition of the biennial team golf competition, the sixth time on foreign soil, and the third trip to vaunted Royal Melbourne. But as you absorbed the presence of Woods and Els with a Presidents Cup backdrop, one couldn’t help but think back to that unforgettable day nearly 15 years ago at Fancourt in South Africa when the incomparable Jack Nicklaus offered an exclamation point of a quote: “Everybody’s comfortable that this is the most unbelievable event the game has ever seen.� Older and wiser, Woods and Els smiled when PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan invoked memories of that 2003 Presidents Cup. It ended in a 17-17 tie, even after the teams tried to settle it with an epic three-hole playoff between Woods and Els. “I still wonder how they got through it,� said the commissioner. “One of the greatest moments this sport has ever seen.� The introduction of the 2019 Presidents Cup captains brought levity and mutual respect – Woods and Els have been arguably two of the best players in the world since 1996 – but perhaps the most intriguing aspect was the admission by Woods that this captaincy was his idea, broached to Monahan in October. “Jay said, ‘Yeah, we might be able to work it out,’ � said Woods. Clearly, they worked it out, along with two other agreements: That each team will have four captain’s picks and that players will only be required to play in one match before singles. As for the possibility that there could be a playing captain, something that hasn’t happened in the Presidents Cup since the inaugural in 1994, there were emphatic reactions. “Yes, I have,� said Woods, with a smile, when asked if he has thought about it. But Els, 48 and surely in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, indicated that he was focused more on leading the International Team, which is 1-10-1 and has lost seven in a row. Whether Woods’ career continues at its rapid improvement and affords him an opportunity to even consider being player-captain, Monahan cited the leadership of both these icons as having “a huge impact� on the competition in Australia. “These men will take the game deeper and wider than it’s ever been.� To many who were there at Fancourt in 2003, Woods and Els took competitive golf to rarified air. Tied after 35 matches, what followed was a half-hour of twilight golf where the American said he felt “the most pressure ever� and the South African conceded his “legs were shaking.� They tied all three holes, producing pulsating theater and must-make putts that demanded every ounce of the skills that had them Nos. 1 (Woods) and 3 (Els) in the world. The icons halved the 18th, a par 5. What followed was a sequence of riveting pressure golf. At the par-4 first, Els slipped home a 10-foot putt, but Woods tossed in a 3-footer on top of him. At No. 2, a beefy par 3 of 234 yards, Woods somehow coaxed in a 12-footer and Els, knocking knees and all, equaled it from 5 feet. As they sat together to make the 2019 announcement, Woods and Els smiled at the ’03 memory. Woods recalled seeing a sea of red shirts – American players, family and friends – “this entire team right in my line . . . so I know if I miss, we lose.� While Els still shakes his head. “I thought I had him beat for once. He had a left-to-right putt, 4 feet of break – and in darkness.� Woods being Woods, he made it and when the three holes left the teams tied, like cornermen for two big heavyweights, Nicklaus, the U.S. captain, and Gary Player, the International Team captain, agreed that enough was enough. Darkness and good sense prevailed. The Presidents Cup would be shared. Those who were there raised a toast to the mutual decision. Wrote John Garrity in Sports Illustrated: “Stop thinking, stop arguing and stop wondering. What Nicklaus and Player did at Fancourt was no different from what Michelangelo did when he stopped nibbling at his statue of David: They preserved a perfect outcome.� To this day, Woods and Els would agree with that sentiment. For all their individual success – 79 PGA TOUR wins for Woods, 66 world-wide triumphs for Els – this team play business ignites a passion which they promise to bring to Royal Melbourne.

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A Masters victory is all that separates the Northern Irishman from joining an exclusive club of five all-time greats. Take a look at how McIlroy’s feat would rate if he conquers Augusta this weekend.

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