Open Champion Francesco Molinari has won more holes in his first two matches than any of the other 63 players in the field at the WGC-Dell World Match Play so far. Picture by GETTY IMAGES
FRANCESCO Molinari’s love affair with match play golf continued at Austin Country Club as the Italian cruised to a second successive victory in the group stages of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, beating his fellow 2018 Ryder Cup team-mate Thorbjørn Olesen 4&3, on Thursday.
The reigning Race to Dubai Champion has won more holes than any other player this week after the opening two days of play in Texas, with 15, while he is the only player to have won both of his matches prior to the 16th hole.
Including his incredible 100 per cent record at The Ryder Cup last September, Molinari has now won seven consecutive match play encounters in which he has played.
And the Italian faces Webb Simpson in round three later today (Friday) hoping to seal his passage to the weekend knockout stages.
Molinari said: “It was somewhat similar to yesterday – very good start the first six, eight holes and tried to control his comebacks.
“I have a lot of respect for Thorbjørn as a player, so I knew it was going not be an easy match.
“He fought hard today and obviously played some solid golf. So hopefully more to come the next few days.”
Justin Rose will also play Gary Woodland knowing a win will see him through having come back from three down with four to play against Frilford Heath’s Eddie Pepperell to gain a half.
Hampshire raised Rose revealed: “Obviously I’m delighted to get a halve. I had a great match with Eddie. He’s such a class individual, as well as player.
“To the point where you almost feel sorry for him by doing that to him over the last few holes.
“I felt I needed to birdie the last four holes, but we didn’t birdie the par five, otherwise I would’ve won the match. But my goal was to birdie out. And obviously you set new intention.
“You kind of forget everything that’s happened previously in the match and that’s the way you’ve got to do it.
“Eddie was obviously very, very hard for me. The whole day he was just solid, and his short game is so good. As you saw on 17 he’s never out of the hole.
“Every time he missed a green he upped and downed it. So I had to win holes with birdies.”
Rose also revealed he had been lifted by his long-time caddie Mark “Fooch” Fulcher, who was watching in the gallery as he continues to recover from minor heart surgery.
Justin, from North Hants GC, said: “I have to give a little credit to Foochie. He’s been walking on the sidelines here.
“He kind of gave me a bit of a ‘come on Rosy’ with four holes to play and lifted my spirits a bit and obviously fought hard for it.
“I could tell he hadn’t given up on me. That picked me up a little bit and made me dig a little deeper possibly.”
The half means Pepperell will be flying home early, having lost his first round match to Gary Woodland 2&1 as even a victory over Argentinian Emiliano Grillo will not be enough.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, meanwhile, will face off with the USA’s 2020 Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk in a winner-takes-all clash, with both players having won their opening two matches.
The 2016 Open Champion said: “I played okay. It’s difficult out there. You’ve got a course where the standard is quite high.
“It’s undulated greens and it’s blowing a good two-club wind. It’s difficult to get it right.
“A lot of times with the shorter clubs it’s probably even harder to get the yardages right than with some longer irons.
“It was difficult conditions. I played pretty solid and didn’t give much for free, even though I tried on one or two occasions.
“I kept it together nicely, and he gave me one or two easy holes, and other than that I thought I had it under control most of the day.”
Lucas Bjerregaard, Branden Grace, Matt Kuchar, Marc Leishman, Li Haotong, Rory McIlroy all hold the outright lead in their respective groups heading into day three.
Among those players still in with a shout of qualifying should they win their final group match include European Tour members Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Paul Casey, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Alex Noren, Olesen, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Matt Wallace.
Garcia maintaineed his 100 per cent record with a 5&4 win over American Andrew Putnam and said: “Pretty much everything went well today.
“I think I missed maybe one green in these conditions, which were quite tough – a little wind, gusty. I drove the ball very, very well and it my irons really well. I gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities.
“I put pressure on him every single hole. And after I got in front – other than that little bogey on 13 – I hit a good second shot just a little too hard – I didn’t give him anything. I kept putting pressure on him.”
Grace, who got the better of World No. 1 Dustin Johnson never having been behind in the match, admitted: “This is fun. Obviously I wish there were more of these events in a year, even if there’s just one more.
“But I think it’s tricky around a golf course like this because it’s elevated. There’s a lot of wind. It’s open.
“You still have to hit it in the fairways, you can’t always just play the golf course and try and make birdies.
“You have to keep your eye on what your opponent is doing, and feed off that and make decisions according to that.
“It’s always nice to beat the Number One player in the world. I knew it was going to be a lot of solid golf.
“And he obviously made a couple of birdies here and there, obviously with the power that he can get on the golf ball.”
For today’s matches and live scoring see here
