We have reached the last day of the WGC Dell Match Play and four men go to post looking to win two more matches which will secure them what might be the last staging of this tournament at the Austin Country Club on Sunday.
For the first time ever at this course, the final four all come from the top bracket of seeds from the group stage as four of the best players in the world will battle it out for the biggest title of the season so far.
Scottie Scheffler vs Sam Burns
Match tees off at 15.05 BST
The first semi-final sees two men who are good friends going at it when the world number one Scottie Scheffler continues his title defence against a Sam Burns who has reached the last four of the tournament for the first time.
These two men have played very well this week and fully deserve to be in the semi-final but I just sense that Scheffler is fighting his game a little. He has come through because he has been able to dominate shorter hitting opponents down the back nine but he’ll need to come up with some front nine goods in this match because Burns won’t give up as much ground off the tee as J.T. Poston did and that Day did on that back nine. Poston visibly went into his shell when he had Scheffler for the taking in the last 16 and Day seemed to weaken towards the end of the day as well, which is understandable given the way his body has been in the past and the fact he had a competitive last 16 clash. I don’t see Burns weakening or giving Scheffler many free holes so if Scheffler doesn’t play that front nine better than he did on Saturday and allows Burns the 3up lead through seven that Jason Day had I’m not sure he’ll be for catching. Scheffler has played a lot of high intensity golf in the last month and it might just be catching up with him. At 7/4 I’ll pay to see how Burns goes here.
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Rory McIlroy vs Cameron Young
Match tees off at 15.20 BST
The second semi-final could be a match we might end up seeing in the Ryder Cup in September when the sole remaining European player left in the tournament in Rory McIlroy takes on Cameron Young, who scoring wise has been exceptional this week.
You probably wouldn’t have had Young getting this far in the tournament, not because he’s no good but because he isn’t renowned as a strong putter but he hasn’t really had to call on his putter to do too many special things so far this week such has been the strength of his long game. I thought McIlroy cruised through the group phase and might be found out by better opponents on Saturday but Lucas Herbert threw seven birdies at him and Xander Schauffele the same and McIlroy wasn’t for beating. Young has scored well enough to throw those sorts of numbers at McIlroy but whether that is enough remains to be seen. One concern I would have for Young is he only made three birdies on 14 back nine holes on Saturday and one of those was a ridiculous piece of luck with a bounce. Those are the scoring holes which McIlroy has a massive length advantage on and if Young doesn’t find more birdies, particularly on 12 and 13 then I don’t see how he can go with Rory unless Rory has a mare, which isn’t looking likely. I expect McIlroy to win this one but he’s plenty short enough to do it.
Tips
Back S.Burns to beat S.Scheffler for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Boylesports
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