Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy eagled the 18th hole to earn a 2–up win over Denny McCarthy in the second round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play on Thursday, March 23, in Austin, Texas.
With the Group 3 match all square through 17 holes at Austin Country Club, McIlroy bashed a drive onto the green on the par-4, 375-yard closing hole, leaving himself a 4-foot eagle putt. McCarthy couldn’t keep up, as his 59-yard approach shot landed 7 feet from the hole, giving him a birdie that wasn’t enough.
“I certainly didn’t expect to fly it on the green,” McIlroy said. “It’s almost one of those, when it’s that far much downwind, it’s almost like I could have hit a 3-wood to get the down slope to get the skid. I was imagining the driver was going to land into the upslope and sort of stay 10, 20 yards short. But as I said, I didn’t imagine I could fly it on the green.”
The result left McIlroy with a 2–0 record heading into the final day of group play on Friday.
McIlroy logged five birdies, the one eagle and no bogeys on Thursday. He rallied after McCarthy held a 3–up lead following an eagle on the par-5 sixth hole.
“It wasn’t easy out there,” said McIlroy, who is seeded third in the event. “It’s windy and blustery and tricky. It was good. I’m really proud of myself that I hung in there after being three down early and clawing it back and producing the shots that I did over the last few holes to ultimately get the job done.”
Also improving to 2–0 through two rounds were top-seeded Scottie Scheffler in Group 1, No. 4 Patrick Cantlay and No. 25 Brian Harman in Group 4, No. 5 Max Homa in Group 5, No. 6 Xander Schauffele in Group 6, No. 56 Andrew Putnam in Group 7, No. 34 Si Woo Kim of South Korea in Group 8, No. 32 Jason Day of Australia in Group 9, No. 10 Tony Finau in Group 10, No. 61 J.J. Spaun in Group 11, No. 47 Taylor Montgomery in Group 12, No. 13 Sam Burns in Group 13, No. 46 Lucas Herbert of Australia in Group 14, No. 15 Cameron Young in Group 15 and No. 43 J.T. Poston in Group 16.
The group winners advance to the single-elimination Round of 16.
World No. 1 Scheffler cruised to a 5–and–4 victory over Sweden’s Alex Noren, with the American winning three consecutive holes on the front nine and four in a row on the back nine.
Cantlay registered a 4–and–2 win over South Korea’s K.H. Lee, sealing the result with an eagle on the par-5 16th hole.
No. 9 Collin Morikawa halved his match with No. 44 Adam Svensson of Canada by birdieing the 18th hole. Morikawa has a 1–0–1 mark in Group 9, leaving him in second place behind Day.
