Rory McIlroy Made a Ridiculous Number of Birdies to Advance to Match Play Semifinals

Rory McIlroy hadn’t held a lead over Xander Schauffele all day—until the four-time major champion’s final putt dropped on Austin Country Club’s 18th hole. McIlroy edged out Schauffele by sinking a 12-foot closing birdie putt to reach the WGC-Dell Match Play semifinals. 

That birdie was McIlroy’s 17th of the 36-hole day.  

The WGC-Match Play might not be a stroke play event, but the birdie count is still alive and well. McIlroy began Saturday by defeating Australia’s Lucas Herbert, two up. To pull off the victory, the world No. 3 carded a total of nine birdies, including three in a row to close out the match. 

Later, against Schauffele, McIlroy rattled off eight more.

“I think I was 16-under for the two rounds of golf I’ve played today so it just sort of shows you the caliber you need to play at to complete out here and try to beat some of these guys,” McIlroy said. 

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler also put on a clinic on Saturday, making 15 birdies between his two matches against J.T. Poston and Jason Day. 

In the afternoon quarterfinals match, Scheffler battled back from a three-hole deficit against Day to reach semifinals. As Day battled allergies in the middle of the round, Scheffler made a late rally, eventually winning 2 and 1. 

Now Scheffler will move on to compete against one of his closest friends on the PGA Tour, Sam Burns. The 26-year-old clinched a dominant victory over Mackenzie Hughes in the quarterfinals, winning 3 and 2.

Scheffler and Burns frequently reside together on the road, but according to Burns, tomorrow’s match will be all “business.”

Off the course, however, the pair of friends will hug it out and continue their running pickleball rivarly. 

“I’ve been taking him on my team in pickleball recently. Usually when he gets on the other team I'll beat him pretty handy in that one, so pickleball for me is not much of a challenge. The match tomorrow is going to be a lot harder than me beating him in pickleball,” Scheffler said. 

Cameron Young was the fourth player to advance to the semifinals matches after he beat recent Arnold Palmer Invitational champion Kurt Kitayama, 1 up. It’s the 25-year-old’s first week with veteran PGA Tour caddie Paul Tesori on the bag, and the pair seem to be more than comfortable working together thus far.