AUSTIN, Texas — The odds were not in Kevin Kisner’s favor.
For starters, no one had ever won in the Dell Technologies Match Play when 3 down with four holes to play at Austin Country Club.
The shot he faced on the par-5 16th was not looking much better. He was in a bunker 50 feet away from the hole, having to clear another bunker and go over a ridge protecting the pin in the back right shelf of the green.
“It was pretty much make it or go home,” he said.
Kisner never seems to be in a big hurry to leave. Coming off a clutch wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 15th, he holed the bunker shot for eagle on his way to winning the last four holes to beat Adam Scott. An hour later, he worked his match-play magic in a rout over Will Zalatoris to work his way into the semifinals.
Kisner became the first player to reach Sunday three times since the group format began in 2015, advancing to face Corey Conners of Canada in his bid to win this World Golf Championship for the second time.
It’s only going to get harder. On the other side of the bracket are Scottie Scheffler, who has won two of his last four PGA Tour starts and reached the championship match last year; and Dustin Johnson, who each match looks closer to the form that made him No. 1 in the world for longer than any player since Tiger Woods.
Scheffler got a tiny measure of revenge when he went 18 holes to outlast Billy Horschel, who beat him a year ago in the final. Scheffler advanced in the afternoon by beating Seamus Power of Ireland, 3 and 2.
Johnson eliminated 49-year-old Richard Bland in the fourth round Saturday morning in a scrappy match, and then he slugged out with Brooks Koepka in the quarterfinals, rallying from 2 down and seizing control with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 15th and improbable halve from a nasty lie on the 16th. Johnson secured the win by driving the green on the par-4 18th.
“If you’re hitting good shots, then you can shoot some good scores,” Johnson said, keeping this fickle format as simple as…
Source : espn
