AUSTIN, Texas — After six holes Friday, Justin Thomas had a simple message for his opponent at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
“He told me to wake up,” Kevin Kisner recalled.
“I was 6 under after 6. He said, ‘I’m waiting on you to wake up.’ ”
It’ll take more than an alarm to fluster Kisner, who has feasted on this event in recent years. The former Georgia Bulldog feels right at home in Texas, winning 11 of his last 12 matches at Austin Country Club. He captured the title in 2019 after playing runner-up to Bubba Watson in 2018.
And Kisner, seeded 29th, rolled out to an early lead on sixth-seeded Thomas before closing out a 4-and-3 victory to advance to the Round of 16.
But the madness was largely muffled in this year’s version of the match-play tournament. Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa and 2021 runner-up Scottie Scheffler were among the top seeds to advance from pool play as eight of the top 16 qualified for the weekend. In 2021, only one top seed emerged from pool play.
Not that all the golf was spectacular, however. Tyrrell Hatton won his pool after beating Daniel Berger 2 up Friday, but he wasn’t exactly thrilled with his play.
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“It was a hell of a pillow fight. Neither of us played great,” said Hatton, who also beat Si Woo Kim and Christiaan Bezuidenhout during the week. “To be fair, I feel like had that finished in a half, you’d have probably said it was fair. It wasn’t great golf from either of us.
“Obviously, from my side, I’m delighted that I came away with a win, to win the three matches and be progressing to the next stage of the tournament.”
Eighth-seeded Dustin Johnson also escaped pool play unscathed, edging Max Homa 1 up on Friday after beating Matthew Wolff and Mackenzie Hughes earlier in the week.
Johnson, who won this event in 2017, has won eight straight in match play, dating back to the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. He’ll be a heavy favorite on Saturday when he matches up with 49-year-old journeyman Richard Bland.
“I’m starting to play a little better,” Johnson said. “I still haven’t really played that many events this season, so just getting back into the competition, getting back into playing. I’ve been working on the game a lot here lately, so it’s finally starting to come around. I feel like I’m hitting the shots that I want to hit when I need to hit ’em.
“I feel like the game’s in good form and obviously in match play all you have to do is play better than the guy you’re playing against.”
Since a number of the top seeds slipped through, Saturday offers plenty of marquee matches, including top-seeded Jon Rahm against Brooks Koepka as well as a rematch of last year’s final between 12th-seeded Billy Horschel and Scheffler.
Although Horschel advanced by earning a tie with Thomas Pieters, his streak of five consecutive victories came to an end. That left him six short of matching Tiger Woods, who holds the record with 13 consecutive wins in the Match Play from 2003-05. Woods also is the only player to win back-to-back Match Play titles.
“I would have loved to match his record at 13 wins,” Horschel said. “But at the same time I mean, he probably would have came back with, ‘I did it in an elimination format, which is a little more stressful,’ and even if I happen to win this week and tie him for winning back-to-back, I mean, he’s still probably going to give me a hard time about. … well, I didn’t lose any of my matches or tie any of my matches to win my two Match Play championships.
“So, you know what? It’s okay. There’s plenty of his records that are still going to be never touched and this is probably one of them.”
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