Woods Opens Match Play with Win Over Wise Despite Shaky Round
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2019-03-28
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — Tiger Woods made a successful return to the Dell Technologies Match Play with a victory.
Jordan Spieth found some success with a tie.
The most unpredictable tournament in golf began Wednesday with only a few surprises as only four of the top 16 seeds in group play failed to win their opening match at Austin Country Club.
Woods, a three-time winner of this World Golf Championships, had not played since losing in the opening round in 2013.
He had a wild time with Aaron Wise until putting him away on the 17th hole.
“The way we were playing today, we’re very thankful it’s not stroke play,” Woods said with a laugh.
Wise gave away the opening two holes with a double bogey and a bogey. Woods went from 2 up to 1 down around the turn, and then he regained control when Wise missed too many short par putts.
Woods closed him out, 3 and 1, when Wise three-putted the par-3 17th.
But it was tough on everyone. A sturdy wind through the trees and valleys, along with some pins set along the mounds on the putting surfaces, made mistakes costly.
Justin Thomas at No. 5 was the only player from the top 10 seeds to lose, falling behind to Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark, who never gave him much of a chance to get back in the match.
It ended on the 16th when Thomas hit what he thought was a perfect wedge only to see it carom off the flagstick and into the rough.
As usual, there were quick shifts in momentum, and a few big rallies at the end.
One of those belonged to Spieth, and it was badly needed. Spieth, the No. 4 seed in this event last year, is now at No. 28.
He has not finished better than a tie for 35th in his six tournaments this year, alarming as the Masters nears.
And he was 3 down after just six holes to Billy Horschel.
Spieth managed to square the match with five holes to play when it seemingly fell apart with a tee shot along the banks of the Colorado River that he chopped out into a footprint in the bunker left by a bird.
He lost that hole.
And then he turned a chance to tie the match into another loss of hole when he three-putted from about 20 feet on the 15th.