Young guns Lucas Herbert and Min Woo Lee have put two victories on the board for the Australian contingent on day two at the World Golf Championship-Match Play event in Texas.
Herbert made a clutch birdie putt to win the 18th hole and the match 1-up against world No.9 Xander Schauffele at Austin Country Club. Herbert now has two points from two matches, having defeated Tony Finau on day one, and he is in the driver’s seat to advance to the final 16.
“I played a little bit with Tony the last 12 months in some bigger events and I played a lot of amateur golf with Xander,” Herbert said.
“(Schauffele) obviously had a quicker rise than I did to the PGA Tour and to the top 10 in the world, but I felt like back seven or eight years ago we probably had similar games and I feel like I’m getting somewhere near where he is.”
Herbert needs only a tie against Japan’s Takumi Kanaya on Saturday (AEDT) to progress into the fourth round.
“Takumi is a great player from Japan, he’s not going to be an easy walkover, I can tell you that, he’s a really solid player,” he said. “So I got to be on my game, make sure I’m bringing my best stuff and if I do that it should give me a good chance to get through to that next stage.”
Lee defeated Thomas Pieters 1-up for his first win in Group 12 and next faces Tom Hoge on Saturday (AEDT). Lee needs a win and for Pieters to be beat Horschel to force a three-way playoff between Lee, Pieters and Horschel, the defending champion, for a place in the next round.
Adam Scott tied his match with Keegan Bradley to go 1-0-1 and next plays Jordan Spieth in Group 11. A win for Scott will guarantee his place in the next round.
Marc Leishman lost 5 and 4 to Justin Thomas for his second defeat in Group 6 and cannot progress into the next round.
AUSTRALIAN GROUPS AT WGC-MATCH PLAY
Marc Leishman: Justin Thomas, Kevin Kisner, Luke List
Lucas Herbert: Takumi Kanaya, Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele
Adam Scott: Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley
Min Woo Lee: Tom Hoge, Thomas Pieters, Billy Horschel
