ON THE LINKS Saturday’s pro golf results

DELL MATCH PLAY

Woods meets his match in Lucas Bjerregaard

AUSTIN, Texas

The conditions were severe. The high stakes put a premium on every shot down the stretch. Tiger Woods was in his element.

Only this time, he was a spectator.

Woods finally met his match Saturday in the Dell Technologies Match Play, and it wasn’t Rory McIlroy.

Lucas Bjerregaard delivered the clutch shots so often seen from Woods in their quarterfinal match. He holed a 30-foot eagle putt to tie the match on the par-5 16th. He holed a 12-foot birdie putt that snapped hard to the right at the end on No. 17, knowing Woods was in tight for a certain birdie.

And on the final hole, Woods blinked first.

His lob wedge from a fluffy lie in the rough came out soft, short and in a bunker. Given a chance to send the match to overtime, Woods missed a 4-foot putt.

“It’s a shame it had to end the way it did,” Bjerregaard said. “Our match didn’t deserve that. But I’m happy to be on the winning side.”

Bjerregaard considers Woods his golfing hero, and he used to take his book to the range in Denmark with hopes of copying his swing. He never could get it just right, though the 27-year-old Dane showed plenty of Woods’ mettle.

Equally surprising was how Woods won earlier Saturday against McIlroy, a big match between the two biggest stars left at Austin Country Club. McIlroy was on the verge of squaring the match on the 16th hole when he had a short iron for his second shot into the par-5 16th. He made 7 and Woods closed him out on the next hole.

McIlroy was so angry he walked briskly away into a cart, and wouldn’t make eye contact on his way to the car.

Woods knows the feeling.

“This is going to sting for a few days,” Woods said in his last event before the Masters.

Bjerregaard, who won his first European Tour title last fall at St. Andrews in the Dunhill Links, next faces Matt Kuchar today morning in the semifinals.

Kuchar had to cope with a contentious moment in his 2-up victory over Sergio Garcia, two players in the news this year for all the wrong reasons.

Garcia had an 8-foot par putt on No. 7 to win the hole to square the match. He left it just short, and then casually stabbed at it from the other side as it rimmed around the cup. Such putts typically are conceded. Kuchar said that was his intention. But under the rules, a putt can’t be conceded after a player hits it.

Kuchar says he didn’t want to win the hole that way. That’s when Garcia suggested if he felt that way, he could concede the next hole.

“I thought about it and said, ‘I don’t like that idea, either,”’ he said.

Garcia needed to birdie the 18th hole to send the match into extra holes, missed the green and wound up conceding.

“At the end of the day, I’m the one that made the mistake,” Garcia said.

PGA TOUR

McDowell one-putts first 15 greens for a 64

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic

Graeme McDowell one-putted the first 15 greens Saturday and shot his second straight 8-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead in the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.

Winless since 2016, the 39-year-old major champion from Northern Ireland had a 15-under 201 total. He opened with a 73.

Chris Stoud was second, also shooting 64.

Second-round leader Sungjae Im, likely needing a victory today to get into the top 50 in the world and earn a Masters spot, had a 69 to drop into a tie for third with Aaron Baddeley (68) at 13 under. The winner doesn’t get an automatic Masters spot because the event is being played opposite the World Golf Championships event in Texas.

LPGA TOUR

Inbee Park birdies 18th to take Kia Classic lead

CARLSBAD, Calif.

Inbee Park curled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for her second straight 5-under 67 and the third-round lead Saturday in the Kia Classic, the final event before the major ANA Inspiration.

Winless in 12 months, the seven-time major champion from South Korea had a one-stroke advantage over Nasa Hataoka after a low-scoring day in perfect conditions at Aviara Golf Club.

Seeking her 20th LPGA Tour victory, Park had a 14-under 202 total.

Hataoka, the 20-year-old Japanese player who won two LPGA Tour titles last season, shot a 64.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

Sutherland takes 3-shot lead in Biloxi

BILOXI, Miss.

Kevin Sutherland made a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 3-under 69 and a three-stroke lead Saturday in the PGA Tour Champions’ Rapiscan Systems Classic.

Tied for the first-round lead with Marco Dawson after a 65, Sutherland had a 10-under 134 total at Fallen Oak. Dawson was second after a 72 in the windy round.

The 54-year-old Sutherland rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 second with a birdie on the par-3 third and also birdied the par-3 eighth. He opened the back nine with birdies on the par-4 10th and 11th and bogeyed the par-5 15th

Associated Press