In Dell Match Play's only battle of the unbeatens, Patrick Cantlay advances to weekend
In Friday’s only matchup of unbeaten and untied players, Patrick Cantlay defeated Brian Harman 2 and 1 to advance to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play's weekend knockout stages.
“I've never made it to the weekend in this event before, so I'm excited to get into that match (Saturday) against Sam (Burns),” Cantlay said.
After the match, Cantlay described his golf throughout pool play as “solid” and then defined solid golf as “just (staying) in every hole and leaving (the ball) in the correct spots out here and giving yourself lots of looks.”
An escape the last time he didn’t leave his ball in the correct spot helped him secure Friday’s win. Leading by one hole at the 567-yard, par-5 16th, Cantlay couldn’t take advantage of a prodigious 360-yard drive, pulling his second shot into a deep grass bunker beside the green.
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Harman, meanwhile, hit his second shot from 244 yards away to within 7 feet, giving himself a look at an eagle putt that could win the hole and even the match. Cantlay responded with a near-perfect pitch from 67 feet away from the hole, sprinting up the hill to watch his ball settle just a foot from the hole.
After conceding Cantlay’s birdie putt, Harman couldn’t convert his short eagle putt and Cantlay kept his slim lead heading to the 17th.
“I hit a really nice pitch,” Cantlay said. “Obviously that shot came off exactly as I planned it. Fortunate for him to miss that putt. I mean, he hit a great shot in there, and I wanted to at least put the pressure on him to have to make that putt.”
On the 142-yard, par-3 17th, Harman’s tee shot left him with a 26-foot birdie try. Cantlay responded by hitting his wedge to within 7 feet.
“It was a good number for me,” he said. “It was just a full wedge, so I was looking to try and hit one in there close. I think that's a birdie hole today with as soft as the greens are.”
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After watching Harman’s birdie putt track toward the hole but fall away at the last instant, Cantlay ended the match with his sixth birdie of the round.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Cantlay said. “We've played in this tournament before , so we've traded blows back and forth. It was a tight match all day.”
Thursday’s win gave Cantlay a small measure of revenge. He and Harman were in the same group in the 2021 tournament. Cantlay won their head-to-head match 1 up, but they finished group play tied at the top of their pool. Harman advanced out of group play after beating Cantlay on the second playoff hole.
With three tough wins under his belt, Cantlay likes the way he’s playing as he heads for his round of 16 meeting Saturday morning with Burns, who also won his group with a perfect 3-0 mark.
“I've been playing really well for the last month or so,” Cantlay said. “I'm excited about all the big tournament golf we have coming up.”
Along with his win over Harman, Cantlay topped Nick Taylor 1 up Wednesday and K.H. Lee 4 and 2 Thursday to win Pool 4. Burns won Pool 13 by beating Seamus Power 2 up Friday, Adam Scott 1 up Thursday and Adam Hadwin 3 and 2 Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Patrick Cantlay tops Brian Harman in Dell Match Play battle of 2-0's
