Stuff you may have missed: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

HUMBLE, Texas — Ian Poulter has the chance to do something special tomorrow at the Houston Open. But he doesn’t want to think or talk about it. Asked after he posted a bogey-free 65 on Saturday — his second straight round without a blemish on the card — what a return to the Masters would mean if he won on Sunday, Poulter was quick to squash the question. “No, not thinking about it, not talking about it,” Poulter said. “I’m going to go out and have some fun tomorrow. There’s a lot of its and buts.” Poulter is correct; there’s no point in thinking about something that’s still very much up in the air. But considering where Poulter was at the beginning of the week, it’s impossible to not wonder what tomorrow would look like if the 42-year-old managed to secure his first TOUR title since 2012 — a win that would also earn him a spot in the field at Augusta National Golf Club. Poulter opened with 73 on Thursday and looked to be out of contention before he even had a chance to get going — to the point that he packed his suitcase to go home Friday night. Instead of fading into the background, Poulter played the next 36 holes in 16 under to rocket up the leaderboard. For a guy who said he had “no expectations” going into the weekend, Poulter is suddenly playing his best golf in the most pressure-packed of situations while trying to have fun on the course at the same time. Poulter attributed his run of good form this week to an adjustment he made to his shoulder position that helped him find a spark on the greens. Through three rounds he ranks ninth in strokes gained: putting. “Just opened my shoulders slightly,” Poulter said. “I’ve been seeing my lines a lot easier and been rolling a few putts in. So good golf has obviously been rewarded with rolling a few putts in.” With a hot putter in his hands, Poulter will be chasing history tomorrow in Humble. Should he go on to win, he would become the first player in the last 35 years to win a TOUR event after being tied for 123rd or worse after the first round. There’s also a TOUR title and a Masters invite on the line. But Poulter isn’t worried about any of that — at least not yet. “I’m in a funny position, right? I said to you guys I’ve got no expectations going out on the golf course,” Poulter said. “I didn’t have any expectations, I just went out to play golf. I’m going to do exactly the same tomorrow regardless.” OBSERVATIONS With a 76 on Saturday, Lee Westwood’s hopes of making a 14th straight Masters appearance came to a disappointing end. A runner-up at Augusta in 2010 and 2016, Westwood was making his first TOUR start of 2018 in a last-ditch effort to win his way into the field. Asked after his round when he might play again on TOUR, Westwood was non-committal, saying there was a chance he might not make another start in the States before the end of the year. Phil Mickelson ended his third round the way it began, at 5 under after 54 holes. The route Mickelson took to shoot 72, however, was anything but conventional. The round included a triple-bogey, double-bogey and two separate stretches where he made three straight birdies. “I’m a little worried that I missed some [drives] that I haven’t been missing and so I’ll have to work on that,” Mickelson said. Four three-putts in the first eight holes had Jordan Spieth wondering “what if” after three rounds. Spieth kept his cool and made two birdies on the back-nine to shoot 71, but without the putter struggles on the front side, the former FedExCup champion would likely be a lot closer than four shots off the lead. “I just got a little anxious trying to get out there early and make a statement, and the greens sped up a good foot today and I didn’t make that adjustment,” Spieth said. If Rickie Fowler comes up short this week, he’ll look back at the par-5 13th hole as the spot where things took a turn for the worse. Fowler battled back from a double-bogey on the front with four birdies to make the turn in 34, but a triple-bogey on the 13th proved to be too much for the four-time TOUR winner to overcome. Fowler lost his ball left off the tee and was forced to drop; he compounded the mistake by three-putting from 11 feet. He’ll start the final round five shots behind Poulter and Hossler. The leaderboard remains bunched with Ian Poulter and Beau Hossler holding a two-shot lead after 54 holes. A total of 14 players are within four, including TOUR winners Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth. Three of the last four Houston Open winners were four or more shots back of the lead entering the final round. Lee Westwood wasn’t the only player in the field who saw his Masters hopes come to an end on Saturday. Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker MDF’d and will miss out as well. Haas is out of the field for the first time since 2009 while Snedeker’s streak ended at seven consecutive starts, dating back to 2010. NOTABLES Henrik Stenson – Stenson followed up a pair of 68’s with a 69 on Sunday. He only has two bogeys on the card after 54 holes and sits three back of the leaders. Made five birdies during the third round, including a 32-footer on the last. Justin Rose – Broke his streak of seven straight sub-70 rounds with a 72. Tripled the 11th but still managed to pour in three birdies on the back to cancel out the big number. Matt Kuchar – Kuchar posted his third straight sub-70 round to move into contention at 11 under. Ranks sixth this week in strokes gained: putting with more than 311 feet worth of made putts. Keith Mitchell – Two bogeys in the last three holes kept Mitchell from the penultimate group. He’ll still have the chance to build on last week’s runner-up finish at the Corales Puntacana just three back. Mitchell’s 67 was highlighted by seven birdies in 10 holes (Nos. 6-15). Julian Suri – The 72nd-ranked player in the world Monday qualified for the Houston Open and sits in a good position to possibly top-10 in his fifth TOUR start of the season. A 73 on Saturday has him three back of a group of six players at T7. Greg Chalmers – Eight birdies in 13 holes vaulted Chalmers 39 spots up the leaderboard. A 65 was his lowest round on TOUR since he posted the same score during the second round of the 2015 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. At 12 under, Chalmers is searching for his second TOUR victory. QUOTABLES I’ll be nervous just like I always am. I’ve learned at each stage of golf that I’ve played from junior golf to amateur golf to now playing professional golf that winning tournaments is difficult and it takes a level of comfortability to do that. SUPERLATIVES Low round: 65 – Thanks to a pair of 65’s, Ian Poulter and Greg Chalmers will go off in the final two groups on Sunday. Longest drive: 381 yards – Tony Finau recorded the longest drive of the day on the par-5 8th hole. Longest putt: 53 feet, 1 inch – Beau Hossler saved par on the par-4 5th hole after his third shot came up well short of the hole. Easiest hole: Par-5, No. 8 (4.589) with 2 eagles, 42 birdies, 38 pars and 7 bogeys and 1 double bogey. Hardest hole: Par-4, No. 5 (4.344) with 8 birdies, 51 pars, 25 bogeys, 4 double bogeys and 2 others. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY

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Here are nine tidbits from the first round of the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. The Austin Country Club plays 7,108 yards (par 71). Know Thy Enemy These were the top-selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Tomorrow, we’ll look at who gamers selected to win the bracket challenge and Friday, as usual, we’ll reveal the PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO selections. Inside the Numbers Of the 16 seeded favorites from Pot 1, gamers selected 12 of them to win their respective pools and move on. Obviously we know who the MOST-selected player was but I’ll let you know that Bernd Wiesberger (52) was the least-selected player in the field. It won’t surprise the sharper gamers that he was the lowest-ranked player in Johnson’s group. More on that pairing in a minute. The most surprising margin was Patrick Reed (19) was selected in almost 20 percent more of the brackets than Jordan Spieth (4). They both won their opening matches. Seeded Dark-Horses Bubba Watson (35) was the highest-ranked player selected to advance as he was selected out of Pot 3. … There were two groups, Nos. 2 and 7, where the top two were separated by less than five percent. The most interesting part of the tight race in Group 2 is that No. 54 Zach Johnson was the second choice… In Group 6, Charley Hoffman (22) had the biggest separation of any “underdog” as he was selected in over 24 percent more of the brackets than “favorite” Tyrrell Hatton (12). Hoffman lost his match 1-down while the Englishman cruised 3 and 2 over Alexander Levy (55), People’s Choice: Dustin Johnson (1) For 95.25 percent of us, we couldn’t be happier this format changed to pool play in 2015. In the old days, Johnson would be packing his bags and heading home after falling 3 and 1 to Wiesberger and PLENTY of brackets would be busted. The defending champion gets a reprieve, but no guarantee of advancing. That guarantee belongs to the least-selected player from Austria. If he wins his final two matches, he advances regardless of what No. 1 does as he’s beaten him heads-up. This format > the old format! Living Up to the Hype Johnson and Kuchar made gamers look smart in Round 1 as they battled to the final hole. Kuchar led 4-up with four to play before Johnson closed with four birdies to halve the match. Yuta Ikeda (47) defeated Ross Fisher (27) in the other match to lead the group with three points. … The tight Group 7 has Tony Finau (29) breathing down the neck of Alex Noren (13). Both players lived up to the hype as well as the Swede handled Kevin Na (61) 4 and 2 while the big-hitting Finau out-slugged Thomas Pieters (39) 2 and 1. Steamroller: Biggest Win Gamers knew what they were talking about, at least in the opening match, when they supported Watson. The winner at Riviera last month was seven-under-par on the front nine and was 6-up at the turn. His victim was Branden Grace (23) who played those same nine holes one-under. Watson went on to win 5 and 3 and shares the lead in the group. Bracket Disrupters: Biggest Upsets Using the numbers above, there’s no doubt that Johnson qualifies but he’s not alone. McIlroy (6) tried to rescue his match against Peter Uihlein (57) with a late birdie barrage but lost 2 and 1. … Rahm (3) needed to win the final hole against Keegan Bradley (63) to halve their match. Each player claims a point … The last player in the field, Julian Suri (64), defeated Marc Leishman (11) 3 and 2. He shares the group lead with Watson in Group 14. I debated whether to put Suri in the Steamroller section or Bracket Disrupters. The answer was yes on both! Worry? Who Me? Fantasy guru and all-around great dude Rob Bolton has let me know that this edition of Match Play is similar to this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament madness. The eventual pool winners over the last three years had 13 first day wins in 2015, 12 in 2016 and 12 in 2017. I’m terrible at math but I can decipher winning on the first day seems to be quite important but isn’t a death sentence. Of those eight players know Johnson was the only player in 2016 to escape pool play after losing the first round. Study Hall For those of you who enjoy numbers, Paul Casey (10) picked up his 24th win in this format defeating Russell Henley (51), 1-up. His only lead was the final margin. … Jason Day (8) grabbed his 22nd victory 4 and 2 over James Hahn (56). … Luke List (60) is one of the newbies this week and he got off to an auspicious start. His putter didn’t see the end of the round after getting bent after eight holes. His wedge filled in but he couldn’t catch Justin Thomas (2) on the final hole. Thomas, who won 2-up, is battling strep throat while List will get a new putter tomorrow.

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