Sergio Garcia celebrates after making a hole in one Friday to win his playoff against Lee Westwood at the Dell Technologies Match Play Championship in Austin, Texas. David J. Phillip/Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Needing to win the final hole to advance, Bob MacIntrye drilled a driver to 3 feet of the cup on he 371-yard 18th hole. Moments later, Sergio Garcia ended one of the record eight sudden-death playoffs with a hole-in-one.
Already the most fickle event in golf, the Dell Technologies Match Play on Friday was an endless frenzy.
Kevin Na lectured Dustin Johnson about not waiting for a 6-inch putt to be conceded, then birdied the last two holes to oust the No. 1 player in the world. Patrick Cantlay, practically flawless with 14 birdies and an eagle over two days, managed only two birdies and lost a playoff with a three-putt.
When it finally ended, Jon Rahm at No. 3 was the only player from the top 20 seeds who made it to the knockout stage of the weekend at Austin Country Club.
“You just never know what can happen out there,” Billy Horschel said after beating Max Homa on the third playoff hole.
Just about everything did.
Garcia beat Lee Westwood in the longest of the eight playoffs with a 9-iron from 161 yards to a front pin on the par-3 fourth hole that landed just beyond the pin and trickled back into the cup.
“Well, 28 years on tour and I thought I had seen everything. I hadn’t!” Westwood posted on Twitter.
Equally stunning was the drive of MacIntyre, the 24-year-old from Scotland with plenty of spunk and loads of fight. He was 1 down against Adam Long, who was poised to advance with Johnson in the group ahead about to lose to Na.
Johnson backed away from his 6-foot par putt – Na only had 4 feet for birdie – and his caddie, brother Austin, stepped in a few feet from the cup to help read the putt. Out of nowhere, a ball shot up the left side of the bank around the green and rolled in front of the caddie’s feet.
Dustin had to mark MacIntyre’s ball so he could putt. MacIntyre was oblivious to what happened except he knew he hit the shot of his life.
“Probably one of the best and one of the luckiest golf shots I’ve hit in my life,” MacIntyre said. “You’ve just got to keep fighting until the end, and it just shows anything can happen in this game.”
His only chance was a low bullet, and it caught the downward slope for extra run toward the left side of the green, which MacIntyre couldn’t see. He heard it was on the green.
“I didn’t have a clue how close,” MacIntyre said. I’m thinking it’s going to be just on the green below the slope. Going to have hopefully two putts maybe to win the hole. But when I seen where they put the ball back down I was like, ‘No way!’
“And that’s what you play the game for, these moments.”
Given how three days of group play has gone, there’s no telling what to expect on the win-or-go-home weekend. It will include a trio of Texas Longhorns, including Jordan Spieth for the first time since 2016. He won three straight holes around the turn and, unlike Thursday when he let Matthew Wolff off the hook, Spieth managed to close out Corey Conners.
Scottie Scheffler halved his match when Xander Schauffele made an 8-foot birdie putt on the last hole, and then Scheffler returned the favor with a 12-foot birdie on the second extra hole. The other Longhorn is Dylan Frittelli of South Africa, who became the first No. 64 seed in Match Play history to make it to the weekend.
Two other players seeded No. 60 or lower made it to the knockout stage. Ian Poulter won his third straight match as the No. 60 seed, while Erik van Rooyen (62) advanced by beating Daniel Berger with a par on the second playoff hole.
Poulter and Matt Kuchar are the only players to have won all three of their matches. Kuchar knocked out defending champion Kevin Kisner with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole.
• Rafael Campos, Fabrizio Zanotti and Justin Suh shared the second-round lead in the PGA Tour’s windy Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.
Campos, from Puerto Rico, had a bogey-free 3-under 69 to match Zanotti and Suh at 7-under 137.
LPGA: Michelle Wie West missed the cut in her first tournament in nearly two years, while Inbee Park headed into the weekend still holding a one-stroke lead in the Kia Classic at Carlsbad, California.
Wie West shot a 2-over 74, an improvement from her opening-round 81 as she finished at 11-over 155. She had two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey.
Park carded a 3-under 69 for a two-round total of 9-under 155 and a one-stroke lead over Sophia Popov, who shot 68 for the second straight day. Mel Reid carded a 70 and was three strokes off the lead. Hyo Joo Kim was 5 under after a 72, and Wei-Ling Hsu carded 69 to reach 4 under.
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