Long, Exciting Saturday at TPC Harding Park


Thirty-six holes weren't enough for some players on Saturday at the $9.25 million WGC-Match Play Championship. Two of them, No. 1-seeded Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey, ran out of daylight in their quarterfinal match at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, forcing the duo to return early Sunday morning to decide who'd play Jim Furyk.

McIlroy was the player moving on, as he beat the game, 37-year-old Casey with a birdie on the 22nd hole and almost immediately turned his attention to Furyk. On Saturday evening, McIlroy said of the decision to wait another day, "I think it was a good idea to call it when we did and come back in the morning and try again," even though it messed up his plans to watch the much-touted Mayweather-Pacquiao match on closed-circuit TV.

The steady Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who led the 2012 Open at nearby Olympic Club before fading on Sunday, advanced after he beat J.B. Holmes 5 and 3 Saturday morning and Louis Oosthuizen 4 and 2 in the afternoon.

Furyk has been pleased with his play so far. "It feels good. I don't know what to say, other than I think I have only made one quarterfinal," the 44-year-old Pennsylvanian said. "I've played pretty well at times and got beat. I feel like last year I think I made it to the final eight last year. And I had a really good match with Rickie (Fowler) and I had him down, and he came back and beat me I think on the last hole."

Also advancing to the semifinals was Gary Woodland, who edged Marc Leishman 2 and 1 Saturday morning before getting past another Aussie, John Senden, 2 and 1 later in the day. "This afternoon was great. I got off to a good start. I drove it well. When I do that out here, I'm going to have a lot of birdie chances. Also made some putts," said the 30-year-old Kansan.

"When he was a little bit inside of me, I made some longer putts early in the round, birdieing four of the first five. I got off to a hot start. And he gave me a hole with a bogey. So 5 up through eight. And from then I kept the pressure on. I drove it well, hit a lot of iron shots. I gave him one hole on 10. But outside of that I played real well."

On Sunday morning the 52nd-ranked Woodland faces No. 49 Danny Willett in one of the two semifinals. Willett, a diminutive 27-year-old from England seeking a breakthrough in the U.S., edged South Africa's Branden Grace 2 and 1 in the morning and fellow Brit Lee Westwood 3 and 2 in the afternoon.

Willett, a two-time winner on the European Tour, said he doesn't have much familiarity with his next opponent. "Don't know much about Gary's game. Obviously playing good golf, every time I looked up there there's been quite a few up early on the guys. Just going to have to see what we both bring to the table tomorrow."

The winners of the McIlroy-Furyk and Woodland-Willett semifinals will meet in the 18-hole Championship Match, which will start Saturday afternoon. The ultimate Match Play champion will earn $1.57 million, and 550 FedEx Cup points.

For updated scoring, visit http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/cadillac-match-play/bracket.html.