Bjerregaard derails Woods in Match Play upset

Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard made all the putts he needed down the stretch to post a come-from-behind 1-up win over Tiger Woods on Saturday in one of four quarterfinal matches at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.

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

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.

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 in 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.

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 with pars on the 12th and 13th.

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 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 12 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 the 16th to pull to within one. Both players parred the 17th, 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.