Top seed Scottie Scheffler won his 10th straight match as he leads a quartet of players with undefeated marks into the semifinals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, on Saturday.
Scheffler plays Sam Burns while Rory McIlroy meets Cameron Young in the semis on Sunday morning. Each player has a 5-0-0 mark through the quarterfinals — the first time since group play debuted in 2015 at the event that all four semifinalists hold a perfect record.
Scheffler improved to 15-2-2 with a 2-and-1 defeat of Jason Day in the quarterfinals. Scheffler seeks to become the second player in tournament history to successfully defend (Tiger Woods 2004).
Scheffler defeated J.T. Poston 1-up in the Round of 16 earlier Saturday. He rallied from a three-stroke deficit against Day in the afternoon match.
“Yeah, glad to be moving on,” Scheffler said. “Jason got off to a really good start this afternoon and put behind pretty quickly there. I think I was 3-down through 7, but he made a mistake on 8 and then I birdied 9 and it was kind a match from there on out, and I had a really good back nine. When you get 3-down, that’s what you’ve got to do. Very proud of that effort there on the back nine and my finish.”
In the other quarters, McIlroy defeated Xander Schauffele 1-up, Young beat Kurt Kitayama 1-up and Burns topped Mackenzie Hughes 3-and-2.
McIlroy defeated Lucas Herbert of Australia 2-up in the Round of 16 in morning action to advance to the quarters.
“Both ends of the bag are working pretty well, and the stuff in the middle is not too bad, either,” McIlroy said. “I putted well all day. … My speed was a little off early on. I think just because the greens were drying out as the day went on. They just got a little bit faster. Sort of once I figured that out and holed a nice putt for 2 on 4, got my eye in and saw one go in, yeah, it was really good after that.”
The championship match and consolation match will be played Sunday afternoon.
–Field Level Media
