The late Seve Ballesteros once offered this take on match play:
“If you ever feel badly for someone on a golf course, you better go home. If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.”
A bit drastic, Seve, but we get the picture.
Ian Poulter gave this take:
“You try and dispose of your man as soon as possible.”
Roger that, Ian.
So there they are at wind-blown Austin Country Club, day three of this WGC Match Play stuff and there are guys living up to or exceeding expectations and there are guys who showed up this week flat as deflated pancake.
Jim Furyk made it here, barely, thanks to his attention-getting runner-up finish at The Players. They didn’t do Jimmy any favors. When the four-man pods or groups were announced, Furyk looked like the weakling on the beach with three body builders. He was thrown in there with Jason Day, Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson, three guys who were supposed to make sure that this was the end of the line for 48-year-old Jimmy.
Never underestimate the cunning and experience of an old man. Furyk shot down Jason Day on Wednesday, 2-up, then took care of Lefty on Thursday with a 1-up win. Lefty and Day will be heading home late Friday. Furyk will have a showdown with Henrik Stenson in the battle of 2-0 guys — winner goes to the round of 16.
There’s a lot of wacky stuff going on in Austin. Match play tends to produce wackiness.
The European Ryder Cuppers have shown up. Francesco Molinari has steamrolled his opponents. Satoshi Kodaira was in over his head on Wednesday, got thumped 5-and-4 and Thorbjorn Olesen was outmatched, 4-and-3. The other half of the Ryder Cup’s “Moli-Wood” is unbeaten. Tommy Fleetwood stood 1-0-1 going into Friday.
Rory McIlroy has been more than impressive in his two wins. He’s the only one of the top four seeds to go 2-0.
Then there’s the 12,000-pound elephant on the premises — Eldrick Woods. His Tigerness eeked out a “W” against youngster Aaron Wise on Wednesday but he fell to sneaky Brandt Snedeker on Thurday. Eldrick was not in a mood to talk about anything after the loss, he issued some mumbo-jumbo nonsense through the tour media guys but it was nothing worth repeating. If you look at his performance, he was even par in his 17 holes against Wise, even par in 17 versus Sneds.
There’s a pretty good chance that Woods won’t make it to the round of 16 — strange things will have to happen and go his way on Friday.
Dustin Johnson, the overall number one seed, is 1-0-1, losing to Brandon Grace on Thursday and Grace at 2-0 has a pretty good shot at going 3-0 to send D.J. home early.
Another European Ryder Cupper is 2-0 and he’s got plenty of support on this American soil. Sergio Garcia has been impressive. His wife is from Austin and the good folks are rallying around Sergio. He’s got a solid chance to get into the round of 16.
Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland are both 2-0. Sadly, you won’t have droves of people coming out on the weekend, fired up at the chance to see Matt or Gary.
Not sure anyone’s going to shed a tear over the fact that Bubba Watson won’t win this again. Bubba was winless after the first two days and guaranteed an early exit.
Breaking news around Austin is that their own Longhorn — Jordan Spieth — hasn’t lost — yet. Jordy, who has threatened to run away and become one of the lost boys, actually tied his opening match and won on Thursday. Don’t look now but Jordy could make it to the round of 16.
We told you things were wacky and there’s your proof.
