Thrilling day at Dell Match Play

In addition to 32 matches in the last round of the group round, the hole tournament of the PGA Tour on March 25 has four play-offs to finalize the list of 16 golfers in the 1/8 round. Four side stroke matches in the “sudden death” format include Viktor Hovland – Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler – Matt Fitzpatrick, Lucas Herbert – Takumi Kanaya, Maverick McNealy – Kevin Na.

Thrilling day at Dell Match Play

In the end, Zalatoris, Scheffler, Kanaya and Na won the right to advance. In it, the Herbert – Kanaya couple had a weird moment, and the Scheffler – Fitzpatrick pairing took place.

Herbert conceded defeat to Kanaya on the first extra hole, after two close-range putts, but both circling the rim of the hole, in which the first shot was in good shape, more than three hands away, and the second shot with one foot was only about 20 cm away. Herbert quickly picked up Kanaya’s ball and ball marker and threw it back to the opponent. At that time, Kanaya’s ball was two blocks from the hole.

After shaking Kanaya’s hand, Herbert did not speak to the media. “At that time, I thought I had to go to the next hole. Lucas must have been very hurt with that result,” Kanaya sympathized with Herbert.

In contrast, Scheffler had to wait more than two hours, then through six extra holes to beat Fitzpatrick with a birdie putt, 1.8 meters away. In the previous benchmark round, Scheffler beat his opponent after 14 holes. In the 1/8 round today, Scheffler will face defending champion Billy Horschel. Last year, Scheffler lost to Horschel in the final.

Dell Match Play brings together the world’s top 64, divided equally into groups to compete in a circle in the first three days. This method has been in place since 2015, with a five-day schedule, of which two days later for the knockout stage – from the 1/8 round to the final. To compete for the championship, a competitor must go through a total of seven matches.

The tournament kicked off on March 23, with a prize fund of 12 million USD at Austin Country Club, Texas. Summarizing the group circle, only Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner, Tyrrell Hatton, Correy Conners all won. In the next 16 players, there are three faces in the top 10 in the world, including number one Jon Rahm, second Morikawa and fifth Scheffler.

In an individual hole match, two players compete for each hole, expected to go over 18 holes. Win 1 up hole. The match ends when the number of ups is greater than the number of holes left. The result is represented by the number of ups in front.