Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre faces Sergio Garcia seeking to avoid a round-robin whitewash at the WGC – Dell Technologies Match-Play in Austin, Texas.
MacIntyre lost out for the second time in as many matches going down 3 & 2 to American Jason Kokrack and leaving the Scot the only one in his four-man group yet to taste success in the Stg 9.1m event.
Even if McIntyre beats Garcia, his match-play race has been with Open champion and World No. 2 Collin Morikawa beating MacIntyre on day one and then tieing his second match with Garcia.
Morikawa and Garcia now have three points apiece, Kokrak two, and MacIntyre zero, and with the top point scorer going through to the weekend knock-out rounds. There will be a play-off if there is a tie at the top in any group.
MacIntyre found himself 2 down against Kokrak after just three holes and thanks to back-to-back bogeys. A 14-foot winning birdie at the fourth got him back to 1 down.
The pair halved the next three holes in par before MacIntyre made a mess of his third shot at the par-4 eighth, and walked off with a bogey ‘5’ to Kokrak’s winning par.
MacIntyre grabbed a second winning birdie in his match, holing a six-foot gem at the 10th to again get back to 1 down but two holes later, he was back to 2 down losing to Korkrak birdie ‘4’.
Kokrak went 3 up thanks to a MacIntyre bogey ‘5’ at 15 before sealing success in matching the Scot’s par at the 16th.
Kokrak said: “I did hit the ball a lot better today. We worked on my swing a little bit last night and also coming here this morning, as I was missing a lot of shots rights, so we made it a little bit flater at the top and it really helped out today.
“It meant I hit a lot of quality golf shots today”.
Glaswegian Ewen Ferguson finds himself the leading Scot early for a fourth week running in posting a five-under 67 to be trailing three shots behind Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal on day one of the Qatar Masters in Doha.
Ferguson grabbed seven birdies as the Tour rookie looks to capture a maiden Tour title.
He said: “I felt knackered when I woke up but it was actually quite refreshing when you’re on the first tee, there’s not much wind and you know it’s going to get windy so I think it was key to get off to a good start and I managed to do that.”
Next best of the sevens Scots are Craig Howie and Callum Hill with scores of 70.
Meantime –
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has declared as ‘unacceptable’ the now annual practice of it raining beer cans each time there’s an ace on the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open.
Fans have been making it rain since 1997 when Tiger Woods aced the hole but this year’s scenes were unprecedented, and with Monahan stating this year out of hand when Mexican Carlos Ortiz was clocked when he aced the hole.
Monahan said: “At the Phoenix Open we’ve created an atmosphere that is unmatched and unparalleled in our sport.
“But it’s never acceptable to be throwing water and beer bottles – we saw it a few times that weekend – and it’s going to be addressed.”
