Tiger Woods faces uphill battle Friday at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

AUSTIN, Texas – Three-time World Golf Championships–Dell Technologies Match Play champion Tiger Woods faces an uphill battle to advance to the weekend after a loss to Brandt Snedeker on Thursday. Snedeker took down Woods 2 and 1 in their group match, meaning Woods must beat Patrick Cantlay on Friday and have reigning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise turnaround his poor form to take down Snedeker. Should Wise beat Snedeker and Woods prevail over Cantlay, the 80-time PGA TOUR winner would advance. Should Snedeker tie against Wise and Woods win, then a sudden death playoff would come between Woods and Snedeker. RELATED: Day 2 match recaps | Scores | Why every match matters Head-to-head results are not used to break group ties, giving Woods a small hope although Wise has only led for one hole in his two losses thus far to Woods and Cantlay. Snedeker automatically advances if he wins. “It was difficult conditions out there today. The wind was pumping and if you went around there with no bogeys, you probably would win your fair share of holes,â€� Woods said. “We both made a couple of mistakes out there, but he made a few less mistakes than I did. “All I can do is hopefully get a point tomorrow and see if that’s good enough.â€� Woods never found his way to the lead in Thursday’s match and was left to rue a couple of critical errors. He failed to make birdie on the par-5 sixth from just outside 5 feet. Then Woods three-putted the par-3 seventh for a bogey to hand Snedeker a 2-up lead. He rebounded to win the 10th hole with a birdie but failed to make inroads over the next four holes, missing birdie putts from 12, 15 and 11 feet that would have won holes. But it was his tee shot on the drivable par-4 13th that sent Woods’ challenge backwards. The shot found the water when he was attempting to lay up. A double bogey gave Snedeker the cushion he needed, and although Woods birdied the 14th, he was unable to birdie the par-5 16th, nor make a 23-footer on the 17th to stay alive. “I’m probably the most hated man in Texas right now… I bet you my kids were probably rooting for him late in the round,â€� Snedeker joked. “In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really mean that much. I’ve got to go out and win tomorrow. As great as today was and as much fun as I’ve had, I’ve got to kind of reset my goals for tomorrow and make sure I’m doing the same thing I did this morning, which is tough to do. “You want to look ahead and say, hey, I beat Tiger. (But) I’m not anywhere yet. I’ve got to go play great tomorrow and use this momentum today from a lot of good stuff late in the round and kind of take that out tomorrow.â€�

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