Rose salvages a half against Pepperell and sets up decider with Woodland

Justin Rose sympathised with his countryman Eddie Pepperell after snatching an unlikely half to maintain control of his own destiny on day two of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.

Rose was three down with four holes to play at the Austin country club, but made birdies at the 15th, 17th and 18th to halve his match with Pepperell and will advance to the last 16 with victory over Gary Woodland on Friday.

“I had a great match with Eddie, he’s such a class individual and player to the point where you almost feel sorry for doing that to him over the last few holes,” said Rose, the world No 2 who was the tournament host of the British Masters won by Pepperell last year.

Woodland was four up on Emiliano Grillo with seven holes to play before eventually securing his second victory of the week on the 18th, leaving Grillo and Pepperell to contest a dead rubber.

The Open champion, Francesco Molinari, had earlier enjoyed a magnificent seventh matchplay victory in succession to move closer to a place in the knockout stages.

The Italian was thrashed 7&5 by Justin Thomas in his final group game 12 months ago, but has since become the first European player to compile a perfect 5-0 record in the Ryder Cup and here he followed his opening win over Satoshi Kodaira with a 4&3 victory over his teammate at le Golf national, Thorbjørn Olesen.

With Webb Simpson and Kodaira halving the other match in group seven, Molinari needs to avoid defeat to Simpson on Friday to reach the last 16.

Tiger Woods will need other results to go his way to advance from his group after losing 2&1 to Brandt Snedeker, who halved his opening match with Patrick Cantlay on Wednesday. Woods will need to beat Cantlay and hope that Snedeker loses to Aaron Wise, whose defeat to Cantlay ended his hopes of progressing.

Woods conjured up a miraculous escape from under a bush on the 10th with a left-handed shot played on his knees, but pulled his tee shot into the water at the 13th and crucially failed to match Snedeker’s birdie on the par-five 16th.

The former champion Rory McIlroy made it two wins out of two with a 3&2 victory over South Africa’s Justin Harding and will reach the last 16 by avoiding defeat to Matt Fitzpatrick on Friday. “I feel good,” the Northern Irishman said. “If anything I played a little bit better today than I did yesterday. Justin put up a really good fight, I had to make a few birdies just to hang in there on the front nine and to finish with two birdies on 15 and 16 was very nice.”

Bubba Watson, the defending champion, crashed out with a game to spare after losing to Billy Horschel. It is the second year in succession the previous winner has failed to reach the knockout stages after the 2017 champion Dustin Johnson lost all three of his matches in 2018.

Sergio García made it two wins out of two with a 5&4 victory over Andrew Putnam and will seal a place in the last 16 with victory over Patrick Reed, who succeeded him as Masters champion.

Tommy Fleetwood had to settle for a half in his match with Kyle Stanley after recovering from three down after four holes to lead by two with two to play, only for Stanley to birdie the 17th and 18th. South Africa’s Branden Grace defeated the world No 1 Johnson on the 18th and will make the knockout stages with victory over Chez Reavie on Friday.