Irish Daily Mail, Friday, March 26, 2021
Fleetwood out to KO DeChambeau
I
f it was a boxing con-
test it would be billed as
the Southport Stylist
against the Modesto
Monster. There again,
given the four-stone weight
disparity and the eight or
nine-inch difference around
the waist, it could never
happen in boxing.
In golf, however Tommy Fleet-
wood will have high hopes of
punching his weight and more
against Bryson DeChambeau
today for a place in the last 16 of
the WGC-Match Play Champion-
ship in Austin, Texas.
Form would suggest a straight-
forward victory for the man hailing
from that small Californian town
who’s anything but modest. But,
given we’re always told form gets
lobbed out of the window when it
comes to match play, Fleetwood
By derek lawrenson
will fancy his chances of extending
DeChambeau’s curiously poor
record as a pro in this format.
It’s fascinating to discover that
when it comes to head-to-head
the US Open champion has played
10 matches in various match-play
events and won precisely two.
That even includes his victory yes-
terday against the Korean Si Woo
Kim.
Fleetwood took care of Antoine
Rozner from France, who played
as if he was still mentally dining
out on his victory over DeCham-
beau the previous day. It’s been a
quiet start to the season for Fleet-
wood but what an opportunity he
has today to change all that.
‘Bryson has been smashing it lit-
erally and figuratively for the past
nine months so it’s going to be an
exciting match, for sure,’ said the
Englishman. ‘I played him in a
foursomes match in the last Ryder
Cup (he and Frankie Molinari beat
Bryson and Tiger Woods) but he’s
come on leaps and bounds since
then.
‘The important thing for me is to
stick to what I can do and play like
I did against Antoine. It was windy
out there and while my putting
wasn’t great, I was able to rely on
my ball striking. I thought I kept
him under pressure all day.’
Rory McIlroy got back to win-
ning ways with a 4&3 triumph over
Lanto Griffin and will have a
chance to get into the knockout
stages today against Cameron
Smith.
McIlroy said afterwards that he
was working hard to find his way
back to his best form, revealing
that he went to the range after
Wednesday’s comprehensive
defeat to Ian Poulter and hit his
way through 11 bags of balls.
‘This is a hard game and I just
feel like it is testing me a little
Golf 43
more in the last while,’ he said. ‘I
need to put my head down and
work my way through it.’
Matt Fitzpatrick gave himself a
chance of making it through to the
last 16 with a comprehensive win
over Canadian Corey Conners.
The Englishman was also given a
helping hand in his quest to win
his group courtesy of an extraordi-
nary collapse by course specialist
Jordan Spieth. Two up with two to
play, Spieth gifted both closing
holes to his opponent Matt Wolff
for a tied match worth half a point
each.
After losing to Matt Kuchar on
Wednesday, Justin Thomas, recent
winner of the Players Champion-
ship, was brought down to earth
once more, this time by defending
champion Kevin Kisner. It means
that one of the Masters favourites
and the No 2 seed will be playing
purely for pride against Louis
Oosthuizen today in his last com-
petitive outing before Augusta. Victory: Rory McIlroy