Branden Grace has one foot in the next round of the WGC-Dell Match Play after coming through his blockbuster against world No 1, Dustin Johnson, on Thursday.
The South African maintained his perfect record in the event after adding a 1-up win over the top seed to his victory in match one.
On Friday, Grace needs a win or a half against bottom-ranked Chez Reavie to progress. Another scenario for his safe passage into the knockout phase is if Johnson loses or halves against Hideki Matsuyama when they meet on Friday.
‘It’s always nice to beat the No 1 player in the world,’ said Grace of a match which saw the lead change as many as 11 times.
The final nail was the South Africa’s 38-foot birdie at the penultimate hole. That birdie was on the back of two consecutive birdies, which helped the underdog rally following DJ moving ahead at the 14th.
The win erases all memories of his missed cut last week.
‘There’s was a lot grafting after last weekend, I didn’t play too well last weekend. Grafted it away. I knew it was going to be a lot of solid golf.’
Grace knows that he has his fate in his own hands and will not be taking Reavie, who halved with Matsuyama, lightly.
‘I’ll just do the same thing, obviously there’s no easy game out there, we all know that,’ he said.
‘I need to go out and play solid golf and try to keep the bogeys off the card.’
