Rory McIlroy through to WGC Match Play last eight with win over Lucas Herbert at Austin Country Club; Scottie Scheffler birdied three of the last four holes to beat JT Poston; Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young and Jason Day also won through
Saturday 25 March 2023 18:55, UK
Rory McIlroy is through to the quarter-final stage of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play after beating Lucas Herbert in the last 16.
McIlroy was taken all the way to the 18th hole by the Australian but an errant drive from Herbert allowed McIlroy to seal a 2up victory with a short chip up close after driving just short of the green.
Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler completed an epic comeback to defeat JT Poston 1up. After sitting two behind going into the final four holes, the world No 1 showed his class with three birdies and won the last by making a par as Poston bogeyed.
Scheffler now faces Jason Day, who beat Matt Kuchar, in the quarter-finals, while McIlroy is up against Xander Schauffele.
The Northern Irishman was pleased to seal the win.
"It felt great," said McIlroy. "If you look at the stats over the last three days, Lucas probably played some of the best golf of everyone, so I knew I was in for a tough game.
"It was one of those games where it was really back and forth. On that back nine I had to hole some nice putts coming in there to keep my nose in front, and this 18th hole has been good to me over the week."
Sam Burns sunk world No 4 Patrick Cantlay 2&1 to set up a last-eight meeting with world No 60 Mackenzie Hughes, who beat Max Homa 3&2.
The fourth quarter-final pits Kurt Kitayama against Cameron Young after comfortable wins over Andrew Putman and Billy Horschel respectively.
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