Jordan Spieth had to beat one of his best friends.
Rory McIlroy had to play two holes of sudden death.
Jason Day didn’t have to play at all on Friday at the WGC Match Play.
All of the “Big Three” advanced to Saturday’s round of 16 at Austin Country Club and they did it under very different circumstances.
First up, Day took the day off when his opponent, Paul Casey couldn’t make it due to a severe illness. With the match concession, Day welcomed the rest. “Look — I’ll take it,” Day said when Casey bowed out of the competition. “It’s definitely a good thing for me to be able to get some more rest and rest my back.”
Day can use the extra rest. He will play Brandt Snedeker on Saturday morning
McIlroy, on the other hand, had all he wanted in his match with Kevin Na. Na gave him a fierce battle and the two were all square after 18 holes. They halved the first sudden-death hole then Na blinked first when he hit a poor drive on the second hole that led to a bogey and allowed McIlroy to win the match with a par.
“It was tough,” McIlroy said of his matchup with Na. Kevin was playing well. I found my rhythm in the middle of the round. It took a mistake from him to get me over the line.”
McIlroy also knows he’s got a tough one against red-hot Zach Johnson on Saturday. “This is a golf course that sets up well for Zach,” he said. “Tomorrow should be a good one.”
Spieth racked up his third victory the same way he got the others — a quick start. He birdied four of his first five holes and was three-up on Thomas by then. “Nice to get off to a good start,” Spieth said after winning 3&2. “It was a bit of an odd scenario,” he said of the match against his good friend. “I know he wanted to beat me bad.”
It was a strange finish. Spieth had a seven-foot birdie putt at the 15th hole to end it there. But he blew his first putt three feet by then lipped that one out for par to lose the hole. Thomas hit his drive at 16 well right and it took him two shots to find the fairway. Spieth hit the green in two and Thomas conceded after it took him five shots to finally get his ball on the green.
Spieth will take on Louis Oosthuizen in the round of 16.
While number one through three made it, others weren’t as lucky. Bubba Watson (4), Rickie Fowler (5), Adam Scott (6) and Justin Rose (7) did not make it to the round of 16.
