GROUP 2
COLLIN MORIKAWA (1-0-1) tied SERGIO GARCIA (1-0-1)
For Garcia, this match of two 1-0 competitors turned into the Great Escape, not only in the overall match, but on the 18th hole, where he was in the right trees, 109 yards from the hole, and had to hit a low, hard-biting sand wedge that checked up nicely and gave him a putt to win the match. Garcia would miss from 26 feet, his ball sliding 3 feet past, but he made par, and sometimes a tie can feel like a victory. Early on, it didn’t appear that this match would go much past the midway portion of the second nine. Garcia had a hard time getting his game untracked, and he did not make his first birdie until the 14th hole. But Sergio being Sergio, he fought, and he wasn’t about to give anything to Morikawa, the world No. 2, who seemed to be in complete control after rebuilding his lead to 3 up with only five holes to play.
Garcia finally broke his birdie drought at the par-4 14th (8 feet) and got a longer putt to go at 15, where he knocked down a 30-footer. Garcia, seeking his 30th match victory in this event, was back in the match, 1 down, and drew even at the par-5 16th, making his third consecutive birdie. Key exchange at the par-3 17th: Garcia’s 18-footer for his fourth straight birdie stopped just short of the hole; Morikawa had to bear down on a 9-footer for par to keep the match tied.
"If you would offer me a tie, a half on the 14th tee, I would have definitely taken it and walked, run to the clubhouse,” Garcia said. “Obviously, yeah, I got on a great run on 14, 15, 16, 17, and you can think, ‘What a shame,’ that I hit that putt on 17 just a tiny bit short right in the middle of the hole and he made a great par putt. But you've got to expect that he's going to make it. But it was a hard-played match, and I'm not going to lie, I'm happy with the half.”
Both players moved to 1-0-1.
JASON KOKRAK (1-1-0) def. ROBERT MACINTYRE (0-2-0), 3 and 2
Needing to win to keep alive in Group 2, Kokrak led throughout this match, though MacIntyre, the scrappy Scottish left-hander, was tough to shake. MacIntyre started slowly, making bogeys on two of his first three holes as Kokrak jumped to a 2-up advantage. Kokrak regained a 2-up edge with a birdie at the 12th – he made it the conventional way, laying up – and a par at the 15th hole, where MacIntyre bunkered his approach, was good enough to go 3 up. He closed out the match at 16 when both players made birdies.
Kokrak’s prize? He gets to take on Collin Morikawa, the second-ranked player in the world.
"Unbelievable ball-striker,” Kokrak said. “But if I hit it the way I did and a couple more putts roll in tomorrow, we'll be right there with him.”
Match recaps from Thursday: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play - PGA TOUR
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