Saturday 26 March 2016 22:16, UK
Rory McIlroy produced his most impressive performance of the week in Texas as he cruised into the WGC-Dell Match Play semi-finals with a convincing win over Chris Kirk.
McIlroy, bidding to successfully defend a title for the first time his his career, carded six birdies in his 4&3 victory which extended his unbeaten run in the competition to 12 matches.
The world No 3 had been taken the distance by Open champion Zach Johnson in a tight last-16 clash on Saturday morning in Austin, but McIlroy showed no signs of fatigue against the 54th-ranked Kirk.
McIlroy got off to a positive start as he rolled in a 10-foot putt for birdie at the first, and he was gifted another win at the par-three fourth when Kirk sent his tee shot long and left and took two more just to reach the green.
But the defending champion returned the favour at the next when he pulled his drive onto a cart path on the left of the fairway, and it was determined that his ball was an inch beyond the out of bounds markers.
The sixth was halved in birdies, and the match headed to the back nine all-square when McIlroy's four-foot putt for par lipped out at the ninth.
McIlroy atoned for his lapse with a precise wedge to five feet that set up a winning birdie at 10, and he went back to two-up at the long 12th when he followed a 377-yard drive with a solid second to 35 feet and two-putted for a birdie which Kirk could not match.
Kirk then took the safe option at the driveable 13th only to tug his approach and watch in horror as his ball spun into the water, and McIlroy closed out a comfortable win as he clipped another good wedge to six feet at the 15th and confidently rolled in the putt.
"I played 55 holes in three days coming into today, and then to go all the way with Zach, it was nice to get a couple of holes off," said McIlroy, who now takes on world No 1-elect Jason Day in Sunday's semi-final. "I played very well this afternoon, I think it's the best I've played all week, and obviously the score reflects that.
"I feel like each and every day I've improved a little bit. I think I made six or seven birdies out there this afternoon. I made a couple of mistakes and gave a couple of holes away, but for the most part I was very pleased with how I played.
"I needed to be a little more aggressive, take a few more pins on and not be quite as conservative. It's sometimes hard to do that on this course because of where the pin positions are and because there's quite a bit of trouble around the greens. But I took a few more shots on and I was a little more aggressive and it definitely paid off.
"I've kept saying I want to go to Augusta with a win under my belt and this is my last chance. I've obviously got a great chance to do that tomorrow, but even if it doesn't quite go that way, I'll still walk away from here very confident going to Augusta, knowing where my game is and knowing that I'm right where I need to be with a week to go."
