Taylor Montgomery thriving in match play debut, takes down Jordan Spieth on Day 2
AUSTIN, Texas – Taylor Montgomery is playing in his first match play event of any kind this week and was paired with Jordan Spieth for the first time in his PGA Tour career Thursday at Austin Country Club. It was an eventful day on both fronts.
Montgomery, who defeated Shane Lowry on Day 1, spent most of his second-round match against Spieth trading the lead, with the duo tying just two of the 17 holes they played, and he sealed his 2-and-1 victory with a birdie at the par-3 17th hole; but the highlight of the round came at the seventh hole.
Matches and scoring from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship
In the most Jordan of Jordan moments, Spieth airmailed the green with his tee shot at No. 7, hitting a spectator in the process. His provisional tee shot wasn’t much better, and after finding the original shot he took a drop off a cart path, declined a second optional drop, and hit (by his own account) a poor chip. On cue, Spieth rolled in a 29-footer for par to tie the hole.
“I knew it was coming. I told [his caddie] we need to make this putt and I feel like he’s going to make par. Sure enough, he did. Jordan doing Jordan things.,” Montgomery laughed.
Montgomery moved to 2-0-0 in his group and will play Mackenzie Hughes on Friday for a spot in the knockout round. Although the Tour rookie has been solid this season, his play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is a bit of a surprise given that he’s never played in an official match play event. In fact, he said the closest he’s been to match play are the “money games” he plays back home in Las Vegas.
“Just gambling games back home. That’s about it. But there’s a lot of presses, so when you get down, it’s like you just press and you try to get it back,” Montgomery explained. “Probably like $10,000, $15,000 putts, but for me it felt like trying to make birdie on 17 against Jordan Spieth.”