Round-Robin Match Play Championship Enters Day 3


Though Rory McIlroy has won both his matches, the No. 1 seed still faces elimination in the $9.25 million WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

The only individual match-play event on the Tour's annual schedule now involves 16 four-player groups, with the top-16 seeds (based on the World Golf Ranking) in each group. Following the first three rounds, the 16 players with the best records in their groups will advance to the Round of 16 for single-elimination match play (in the event of a two-way tie in a group, head-to-head match results will be used as the tiebreaker; a three-way tie will require a sudden-death stroke play hole by hole playoff).

Because of the new format, and that Billy Horshel is in McIlroy's group and is also 2-0 in his matches, the two will face off Friday, with the winner moving on to Saturday and the loser heading home.

"It's win or go home," McIlroy said after he beat Brandt Snedeker 2-0. "So it's back to the usual format." Horshel got past Jason Dufner 3 and 2.

McIlroy and Horschel have experienced some testy times in the past, with the two battling it out during the 2007 Walker Cup and McIlroy getting rankled over what he perceived to be excessive emotions from Horschel. Since then, the two have gotten along fine, though they haven't played each other in match play since the amateur team contest.

"Back then, we were a little bit younger and a little more emotional," McIlroy said. "So it was pretty heated. I don't think tomorrow will be quite so much like that. But still, you need to win or go home. So it's an important game."

Reigning Masters' champion Jordan Spieth is in a similar situation to McIlroy. The 21-year-old from Dallas has gone 2-0 in his matches, beating Matt Every 4 and 3 Thursday, but so has Lee Westwood; the duo will play each other Friday.

"It's going to be a tough match," Spieth said of going against the seasoned 42-year-old Brit. "It's going to be hard to keep making this many putts and this many birdies. And I feel like I'm truly going to need to beat him."

Other players going 2-0 through the first two rounds are Hunter Mahan, who beat Ben Martin 5 and 3 on Day 2; Bubba Watson; Louis Oosthuizen; Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepke.

Since Watson and Oosthuizen are in the same group, Watson, a two-time Masters' champion, and Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open winner, will battle it out Friday to see who advances to the Round of 16.

Watson won his first green jacket after beating the diminutive South African on the second sudden-death playoff hole at Augusta National with a miraculous shot from the trees. Noted Watson of his match with Oosthuizen: "I just hope the results are the same. For him he probably wants to change it. But it's so long ago. He's not thinking about that. I'm definitely not thinking about it. A lot of things in our life have happened since then."

Added Oosthuizen, "You're not playing for a green jacket, but still I need to play well. He's playing obviously good golf, as well."

Defending Match Play champion Jason Day was eliminated, going 0-2 after losing to South Africa's Branden Grace 4 & 3 on Day 2. Also not making the weekend was 2013 Masters' champion Adam Scott, who also went 0-2. Despite being knocked out of the tournament, both will play matches on Friday.

Victor Dubuisson, who finished second to Day last year when the tournament was held in Arizona, was also eliminated after losing both of his matches.

For the scores of all of Thursday's matches, visit http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/cadillac-match-play/livescoring.html. For the pairings and various other storylines on Day 3, visit http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/cadillac-match-play/news/2015/04/30/round-three-match-previews.html.