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WGC-Dell Match Play: Five biggest surprises from group play

By Brandon Raper

AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 27: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks on in his match against Luke List of the United States during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 27, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 27: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks on in his match against Luke List of the United States during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 27, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images) /
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WGC-Dell Match Play Jason Day
AUSTIN, TEXAS – MARCH 29: Jason Day of Australia plays his shot from the third tee in his match against Phil Mickelson of the United States during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 29, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

Jason Day gets shut out at the WGC-Dell Match Play

First Match: 18 holes against Jim Furyk. Lost 2-down

Second Match: 15 holes against Henrik Stenson. Lost 4&3

Third Match: 18 holes against Phil Mickelson. Lost 2-down

Jason Day has been a bit up and down recently, but that doesn’t make his first three days at the WGC-Dell Match Play any less of a surprise. Nor does the fact that he had the distinct misfortune of being assigned to the “Group of Death” alongside Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk.

This group owns 79 PGA TOUR victories, eight major championships, and 51 weeks at the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. Sure, most of those wins came from Phil Mickelson (44 TOUR wins and 5 majors), but that last one is all from J-Day himself. But I digress.

Jason Day headed into the WGC-Dell Match Play with three top-ten finishes in his last five PGA TOUR starts, including a T-8 finish at THE PLAYERS Championship just two weeks ago. He didn’t fare so well last week, missing the cut at the Valspar Championship, but overall things have been going well for the Aussie star. Surely a two-time Match Play winner (one in each format) would be just fine given his recent form, right?

Well, as it turned out, not so much. Day did take two of his matches to the limit, losing to both Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson in 18, but even that took work. In the opening match, Day held as much as a 3-up lead on the front nine against Jim Furyk, but he basically collapsed on the back nine, dropping five holes after the turn and three of the final four to the 2020 Ryder Cup captain. Overall, only four of the 18 holes were halved in that battle.

Speaking of battles, the second-round match with Henrik Stenson wasn’t much of one at all, with the Swede allowing Day to win just one hole for the entire match. By the time that Day teed off against Phil Mickelson in Friday’s group finale, neither man had anything but pride to play for, as both had gone 0-2 already. Day won five holes against Mickelson, but four of those came after falling four-down through the first eight holes. Whether you believe in “moral victories” or not, this wasn’t exactly one of them.

For Day, the pain of an early Match Play elimination will be lessened just a bit by the fact that his stroke play game still looks pretty sharp with the Masters less than two weeks away.

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