North Las Vegas, Nevada — Brook Henderson only needed 27 holes to win two games. Canadians need to win another to ensure they reach the weekend on T-Mobile Match Play.
A day after a 6-5 victory in the opening round, Henderson scored five of his seven holes on Thursday to win Taiwan’s Pei Yun Chen with a 5-4 win and pulled behind.
Another day of the round-robin match will remain in Shadow Creek before each of the winners of the 16 groups advance to the knockout stage over the weekend. No one had won her group, but at least 18 players were eliminated on another day of this whimsical form.
Defending champion and number one player Nelly Korda will need to beat Aliya Jutanugaan to win the group. Korda halved her opening match and spent some volatile moments with one victory over Jennifer Kupucho.
Korda had a 4-foot putt that went up three times in three holes, missed the putt and handed out par 5 16th place on a bogey. It came down on the 18th and Kupcho pulled the drive to the left of the hazard. Her next shot clips the tree and she stops watching, but discovers the ball is green.
Korda’s approach was 40 feet long and she worked well to slow it down to her feet. Kupucho missed a 30-foot birdie attempt and Korda moved on to the decisive match against Jutanugaan.
“It’s very suspicious to me,” Korda said of her play. “I’m sure I don’t have the best ones right now. That’s the biggest thing in matchplay, even if you don’t have the best ones that you need to grind it.”
Lydia Ko joined Henderson as the only player who hasn’t played the 15th hole yet in either of the two rounds. The difference is that KO lost her first match (6 and 4) before Thursday with a 6-5 victory at Gabriella Raffels. Everyone in the KO group is 1-1.
If any group ends with a tie, the winner will be determined by the sudden death playoff.
Hio Joo Kim, who won the playoffs in Arizona last week, won the final four holes in a rally with Nanna Koertz Madsen for her second victory this week. Kim and Maja Stark are 2-0 and will see who will make progress on Friday.
Rose Chan admitted to the match against Alban Valenzuela after three holes. Chang complained about his neck injury in the opening round. That sets up a strange scenario.
If Zhang can’t face Meghan Khang, Valenzuela will be eliminated. If Zhang can play and defeat Khang, Valenzuela can beat Nataliya Guseva and win the group.
Among those excluded are Gin Youngco and Leona Maguire, who are in another strange situation.
KO had to win the match to get a shot over the weekend. The match was Dormy after the age of 16. In other words, KO has been eliminated. However, the Koreans scored the next two holes to halve the match and eliminated Maguire.