Strange bedfellows of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

AUSTIN, Texas – Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel were teammates in the 2007 Walker Cup and have gotten to know each other over their years on TOUR, so their match at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play on Thursday was nothing if not convivial.

When Horschel made a 50-foot birdie putt at the par-3 11th hole, Fowler pretended to joust him with his putter, and they broke up laughing. Fowler cut into the lead with a 30-foot eagle putt on the next hole, and Horschel gave a smile and a thumbs-up.

But someone has to win, which means the other guy has to lose – unless they tie.

“It’s tough,” said Horschel, a 3-and-2 winner who will control his own destiny in Group 2 when he takes on Jon Rahm on Friday. “I’ve got a group of three guys I get along with very well, I like very much, and it’s sort of tough to play them.”

There are all sorts of unusual aspects to this tournament, many of which can play on a golfer’s mind, but the most glaring of these is the strange-bedfellows aspect. It happens every year. Friends and teammates face off against each other, or players face opponents they’ve previously only seen on TV, or opponents they know all too well from long-ago battles.

Then again, some matchups just look funny to the naked eye.

In the skyscraper match Friday, 6-foot-4 Tony Finau birdied six of his last seven holes to beat 6-foot-5 Adrian Meronk, 4 and 3. If you needed someone to replace a lightbulb, this was your match. Finau ran his record to 2-0-0 and will win the group with at least a tie against 5-foot-7 Kurt Kitayama on Friday.

Winning that match could be a tall order (sorry) considering Finau has made 13 birdies so far, and Kitayama made eight of them on Thursday to beat Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 2 and 1.

“I’m going to have to play well to beat him,” Finau said of his opponent, who recently won his first PGA TOUR title over a strong list of contenders at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

Some matchups here could be straight out of the Ryder Cup; the Presidents Cup; or Athens, Georgia.

Davis Thompson and Sepp Straka, who squared off Thursday, both attended the University of Georgia in Athens, but they had to put school spirit aside as Thompson thumped Straka, 4 and 3.

Thompson, incidentally, is only 23. That’s still older than Tom Kim, 20, who lost to Davis Riley on Thursday. (When Riley lost to Scottie Scheffler on Wednesday, it was a bitter reminder of the 2013 U.S. Junior final—same result.)

If Horschel, the 2021 winner of this event, felt it tough to play Fowler on Thursday, he didn’t show it. Horschel made four birdies and no bogeys while Fowler made two birdies and an eagle but four bogeys, the last two on 15 and 16 to end it.

“Rickie and I have known each other for so long,” said Horschel, who came into this week at 121st in the FedExCup and determined to turn things around. “It’s not shocking when you see us congratulating each other, having fun out there. At the end of the day one of us had to win and one of us had to lose.”

Max Homa joked he would have to wear earplugs to tune out Presidents Cup and QBE Shootout teammate Kevin Kisner on Thursday. But the conversation was kept to a minimum as Homa, second in the FedExCup standings, prevailed, 3 and 2, over Kisner who is a past winner and two-time runner-up in this event.

“It was very quiet,” said Homa, who is 2-0-0 and will play Hideki Matsuyama on Friday. “…Once we got to the back nine it got very serious.”

Bogey-free on the day, Homa birdied four of his last five holes to close out his pal.

In other matches, players revered their opponents more than they knew them.

“To get a win over Hideki is always an honor,” said Justin Suh, who is the 63rd seed in the 64-man field and beat Matsuyama, 3 and 1, on Thursday. “I always tell him after I played with him it’s always an honor to play with him. I know how big of a deal he is. I grew up watching him.”

Alas, if anyone looked awed and/or off his game, it was not Suh, 25 and the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, but the eight-time PGA TOUR winner and Masters champion Matsuyama, who is 31. He made four bogeys and three birdies compared to just one bogey and two birdies for rookie Suh.

Taylor Montgomery knew Jordan Spieth only by reputation as they shook hands on the first tee at Austin Country Club. They’d never played together, but Montgomery nonetheless knew of the Spieth legend. Ergo, when Spieth hit a spectator’s cell phone, took a drop off a cart path, and made a 30-footer for a typically zany par at the par-3 seventh hole, Montgomery wasn’t shocked.

“Oh, I knew it was coming,” said Montgomery, who made six birdies, won 2 and 1, and would win Group 12 with a tie or a win against Mackenzie Hughes on Friday. “I told (my caddie) we need to make this putt and I feel like he’s going to make par.

“Sure enough, he did,” Montgomery added. “Jordan doing Jordan things.”

Friday’s matches will bring more strange bedfellows, pros who don’t see eye-to-eye (literally), or once wore the same uniform. They’ll tee it up and get on with the business at hand, no doubt making yet more memories for another day.