Louis Oosthuizen removed Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson from the WGC-Dell Match Play on Saturday to head into the semi-finals with a flawless five-win streak.
‘It was a good day for me. I had two tough matches today. I was focused quite a bit this morning and wanted to give myself a good opportunity to have a shot against Jordan. And then this afternoon, you know, a little bit probably more relaxed and played some good golf,’ he said.
The 2010 Open Champion, who for the last two years has bowed out in quarter finals, beat world number one Spieth 4&2 in the round of 16.
Spieth battled to score and trailed through the front nine, but a birdie at the 10th brought him back into the picture. It was not the Texan’s day at Austin Country Club and his South African opponent made birdies from the 11th to the 13th to go 4up with four to play.
The match ended when Oosthuizen birdied the par-five 16th and progressed to the quarter finals for the third time in as many years.
‘It was a huge match for me this morning,’ he said. ‘Jordan is obviously someone who’s been playing unbelievable golf and No. 1 in the world. And I wanted to be really prepared for it this morning and stay in the moment and didn’t do something silly. I made good putts when I needed to and just played solid golf.’
He faced off against world number eight Dustin Johnson in the next stage and the match was fiery at the start, with the American taking a 1up advantage all the way to the turn.
Oosthuizen birdied the 10th to bring the match back to all-square and then parred the 11th to go 1up. He birdied the 15th to go 2up, but it was a 21-foot putt for birdie at the 17th that won the match for the world number 16.
‘Dustin is a great player, and unfortunately for him he missed quite a few opportunities for birdies on the back nine. But I just wanted to go through to tomorrow and see if I can get into this final,’ said the Mossel Bay local.
The 33-year-old heads into the semi-finals on a flawless streak, but cannot take his foot off the gas when he faces Rafa Cabrera-Bello in the penultimate round.
Jason Day and Rory McIlroy will compete in the other semi-final matchup and offer a tantalising showdown between the world’s number two and three golfers.
