Austin, TX — Austin Country Club will be hosting the one and only match play tournament on the tour this week. The fun has already begun as all 64 players in the field had their first match of group play today.
Paul Casey Concedes Match After Two Holes
Sadly, Paul Casey had to concede his match against Corey Conners today after only two holes. This was reportedly due to back spasms that Casey was experiencing. Casey has been in great form as of late, after finishing 3rd at The Players Championship. On the bright side, he has yet to withdraw from the tournament, hopefully things turn around for him and he can continue play.
Spieth Comes back to beat Bradley
One of the best matches that were out early was from the stacked group eleven, Jordan Spieth vs. Keegan Bradley. This match was a good one, as it was back and forth early. However, Bradley kept the edge for most of the front nine. Spieth did not take the lead once on the front nine, but Bradley gained a one stroke lead four different times on the front nine alone.
The tides turned for Spieth after hole 12. After making a birdie to get the match back to all square he never looked back. The match did stay all square until hole 16, where Jordan was able to take advantage after Bradley recorded a double bogey. After this, the two tied hole 17, making Jordan dormy going into the final hole. What did Spieth do? He birdied to ensure his first match victory. There is just something about Spieth’s play when he goes back home to Texas that seems to light a spark.
Luke List Upsets Justin Thomas
Luke List just dominated his match against Justin Thomas. After List went one-up on the second hole, he did not look back. Thomas was not able to get the lead once. However, he did attempt a comeback on the back. He was able to shorten List’s led to only one up after winning the 12th hole via concession, but List was able to put the match away shortly after by winning both 14 and 15. Luke List won 3 and 2.
In the end, this match was a lot closer than it looked. JT was not able to make it happen today. They tied nine of the 16 holes that they played. Also, Thomas only made one birdie on the day, coming on the first hole. One or two more and this match could have easily gone the other way.
Kisner Continues his Match Play Domination
Kevin Kisner thrived in match play. According to him early in the week, “It’s a lot easier to beat one person than 155.” He showed this today by winning by one of the largest margins of the day.
Kisner was paired with Marc Leishman, one of top Australian golfers on tour. However, he did not stand a chance against Kisner. Like Thomas, Leishman was not able to get a single lead on Kisner. Going into the back nine, he already had a 3-up lead over Leishman. After Kisner birdied the par-3 12th to go 4-up, it was a formality that he would win. The two would end up tying every hole until the match finally ended with Kisner winning 4-3 on the 15th hole.
McNealy Wins with the Largest Margin of the Day
This is the great part about the match play format, we get a ton of surprises. Therefore we call it the march madness of golf. Maverick McNealy, the lowest ranked player by world ranking in the field this week, was not even in the field until Players Champion Cameron Smith decided he was not going to play this week. However, he still took everyone by surprise by beating Joaquin Niemann 8-6. At one point, McNealy even won three holes in a row, or five of the first seven. In the twelve holes that these two played, McNealy birdied five of them. I think it is safe to say that if this was not a match play format, he would be the 18-hole leader.
Action to Look Forward To
There are not many heavyweight-on-heavyweight matches slated for tomorrow, as most of those for group play have been saved for Friday. For example, Justin Thomas vs Kevin Kisner, the marquee match of group play, will not be taking place until Friday.
The biggest match of tomorrow is defiantly Jordan Spieth vs Justin Rose. The two major winners will be teeing off at 2:44 p.m. EST.
