Bjerregaard derails Woods in Match Play upset

AUSTIN, Texas -- The anonymity of Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard echoed through the trees of windswept Austin Country Club on Saturday during the Dane's match with Tiger Woods in the quarterfinals of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.

"Who's Tiger playing?" was the question that was being asked by those in the gallery, oblivious to anything that anyone was doing besides Woods.

"That beer guy," was the answer, as most had no idea that Bjerregaard (pronounced "beer guard") is a two-time winner on the European Tour, is ranked 52nd in the world and thrashed Sweden's Henrik Stenson in the Round of 16 earlier in the day.

Maybe they'll know about Bjerregaard now, especially after he made all the putts he needed down the stretch to post a come-from-behind 1-up win over Woods.

Bjerregaard advances to play Matt Kuchar in the semifinals on Sunday morning after posting the upset over Woods, a three-time winner of this event, winning on the final hole.

"We had a great match, and I really, really enjoyed playing with him today," Bjerregaard said about Woods. "I've never played with him before, so it was a cool experience for me and obviously to say I've beaten Tiger, there's not a lot of guys that can say that, so it's up there."

Francesco Molinari of Italy will face American Kevin Kisner, a finalist in this event in 2018, in the other semifinal, with the winners of those two matches squaring off for the championship on Sunday afternoon and the losers playing for third place.

Not only had Bjerregaard never played Woods before, he'd never met him before the first tee in the quarterfinals.

"It's so different to what I've ever experienced before," Bjerregaard said. "I've never heard so many yell his name and all the stuff all the way around. I actually thought it was really enjoyable. But it must be hard, as well, doing that every day. A lot of people were yelling my name as well and having a bit of fun with it."

Woods lost the first hole to Bjerregaard's birdie, but evened the match with a birdie on the third hole, took the lead with another on the fourth and moved 2-up with a third in a row on the fifth. Bjerregaard got one back on the seventh and squared the match with a birdie on the 10th.

Woods took the lead again on the 11th when Bjerregaard hit his tee shot on the par 3 into the lake fronting the green. That 1-up advantage held up until Bjerregaard canned a 29-foot putt on the 16th to tie the match.

Both golfers made lengthy putts on the 17th hole to keep the match tied and both hit drives on the 18th that left them within a short pitch uphill into the green.

Woods' pitch landed in the bunker short of the putting surface while Bjerregaard's reached the green 17 feet behind the hole. Woods then blasted out to five feet, and watched as Bjerregaard's putt missed on the low side before conceding the par.

Woods' putt to extend the match to a playoff was too hard at the left edge of the hole and lipped out, allowing Bjerregaard the victory.

"(Bjeeregaard) played well in tough conditions," Woods said. "It was not easy out there, and we both hung around, we both kind of grinded away around the golf course. And he played the last three holes pretty solidly."

Woods came into the week saying he was looking forward to getting in three good matches in preparation for the Masters in two weeks. He got that and more, playing five opponents over four days and nearly adding at least one more.

Molinari, the reigning Open Champion, cruised past Kevin Na 6 & 5 after building a 5-up lead on the strength of birdies on the third, fourth, fifth and seventh holes. Another birdie on the par-3 11th pushed Molinari's lead to 6-up with seven holes to play, and he closed out Na at the 13th.

"I played great today, given the conditions -- I would say a lot better than this morning (in a 5 & 4 win over England's Paul Casey)," Molinari said. "It's really important at this level, even if you're 3- or 4-up early, to keep going because matches can turn very easily. I did that very well and I'm very happy with my performance."

Kisner earned his spot in the semifinals opposite Molinari with a 2 & 1 victory over Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa. That match went back and forth on the front nine and was all square going to the 10th hole, which Oosthuizen won with birdie to go 1-up. But Kisner squared the match with a par on the 15th, went up with a birdie on the 16th and won on the 17th when Oosthuizen hit his tee shot into the canyon and conceded the hole.

While much of the focus on Saturday afternoon was on Woods and Bjerregaard's match, the battle between Kuchar and Garcia was just as contentious, if for different reasons.

Kuchar won the fifth hole to grab the lead, then won the par-3 seventh with a bogey when the Spaniard missed his putt for par and then flailed at the ball before Kuchar had a chance to concede the six-inch comebacker. Kuchar later told Tour officials that he had intended to concede the putt to Garcia but was told that it could not be done retroactively.

Kuchar then won the eighth hole with a par to go 3-up. Garcia responded with a birdie to win the 10th hole but gave that back with a bogey on the par-5 12th when he hit his approach into the water to the left of the green. The two players traded wins on holes 13 and 14, leaving Kuchar 3-up with four holes to play.

Garcia won the 15th with a birdie after a spot-on approach to cut Kuchar's lead to 2-up and then added another birdie on 16 to pull to within one. Both players parred 17, meaning Garcia needed to win the 18th to extend the match. That hope ended when Garcia hit his approach into the front of the bunker next to the green.

--Field Level Media