AUSTIN, Texas – Defending champion Rory McIlroy will face a player he knows very little about in the Dell Match Play.

Jordan Spieth knows one of his opponents all too well.

Spieth, the former Texas Longhorn and crowd favorite at Austin Country Club, wound up in the same group as longtime friend Justin Thomas.

Both are 22 and they have been friends since 2007, when they were selected to represent the United States in the Evian Junior Masters. Spieth beat him in a high-profile match in the NCAA Championship at Riviera in 2012, which the Longhorns won, and has gone on to two majors and reach the No. 1 world ranking.

The 64 players were broken into four groups based on this week’s ranking, and one player was chosen by lottery to fill out the 16 four-man groups. The draw was held at the Paramount Theater, and Ben Crenshaw picked the names out of the bowl for Spieth’s group.

“Jordan probably won’t talk to me the rest of the week,” Crenshaw said. “They’ve played a lot of golf together. Obviously, they know each other very well. They’re admirers of each other.”

Spieth and Thomas already have played together three times this year – the opening two rounds at Riviera, and the third round at Doral. They won’t play each other at the Match Play until Friday. Also in their group are Victor Dubuisson of France and Jamie Donaldson of Wales.

McIlroy won last year at Harding Park with three close calls before beating Gary Woodland in the championship match. He is the only player among the top six in the world who has yet to win this year, and hopes this week will spark him in his final tournament before the Masters.

In his group is Smylie Kaufman, who won his first PGA Tour event in Las Vegas in just his second start as a member. McIlroy also has Kevin Na and Thorbjorn Olesen.

“Thorbjorn is a good friend of mine. The first time I played with Thorbjorn was in Egypt in 2010. We’ve got a little bit of history,” McIlroy said.

“Smylie, I really don’t know that much about. I know that he got off to a great start in his PGA Tour career. As I said, no matter who you draw in this event, you know you’re going to get a tough match.”

The 18-hole match play switched to group last year, moving away from the single-elimination format that made this event aggravating to those who lost early, and difficult on the sponsors because top players often were gone by the weekend.

This year, however, matches during group play can end in a draw.

One player from each of the 16 groups advance to the knockout stage that starts on Saturday. If two or more players in a group are tied, they go to a sudden-death playoff.

Jason Day, the No. 2 seed based on his victory Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, preferred the single-elimination format because it made every match feel more important. He lost all three of his matches last year at Harding Park.

His group has a couple of names that should get his attention. Day will face Graeme McDowell on Wednesday and Paul Casey on Friday. Thongchai Jaidee is the other player in his group.

PHOENIX – Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., finished in a tie for fourth place at the JTBC Founders Cup in Scottsdale, Ariz., shooting 67 in the final round on Sunday.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Jason Day turned his fortunes at just the right time Sunday by making a 12-foot birdie putt and then saving par from just under 100 feet away in a bunker to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

It was another great moment for Palmer, the 86-year-old tournament host who watched it unfold on the 18th green.

Day closed with a 2-under 70 for a one-shot victory over Kevin Chappell, who looked as if he might finally win in his 150th start on the PGA Tour. Chappell didn’t flinch the entire back nine until his tee shot was buried in deep rough on the 18th, forcing him to lay up. He hit wedge to 25 feet and was ready to putt when he heard the big roar when Day made birdie on the 17th to tie for the lead.

“Being honest, kind of had me rattled a little bit,” Chappell said. He left his par putt well short and made bogey for a 69.

The closing hole at Bay Hill was just as tough for Day.

With a one-shot lead after Chappell made bogey, Day took water out of play from the right rough and went well left of the green into a bunker, 95 feet away with water on the other side of the green. Day blasted out to 4 feet and made the par for his first victory of the year.

He moves to No. 2 in the world and will have a chance to overtake Jordan Spieth next week in the Dell Match Play.

“It means the world,” Day said of winning Palmer’s tournament. “I just ground it out. I got it done when I wasn’t quite on.”

Four players had at least a share of the lead on the back nine. Day was the last man standing.

Troy Merritt, four shots behind when he made the turn, ran off five straight birdies to catch the leaders, and then chipped in for par on the 17th to keep his hopes alive. But his approach on the 18th went into the water and he made double bogey for a 71.

Merritt tied for third with Henrik Stenson, who was tied for the lead until failing to save par on the 14th and then finding the water for bogey on the 16th. He also shot 71.

Day finished at 17-under 271.

Chappell was sick all week after catching a bug from his young son. He took the lead with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th, hit a tough bunker shot close on the 17th to save par. The shot that cost him was his tee shot, and the lie was so atrocious that the only question was where to lay up.

“I had a chance to win, and that’s all I can ask for,” Chappell said after his fourth runner-up finish on the PGA Tour, and second this season.

Rory McIlroy ended a wild week with his sixth double bogey – the most he has ever made in a PGA Tour event – along with two eagles and five birdies for a 65. He shot a 67 on Friday to make the cut. It was the 75s in the other two rounds that held him back.

“Pretty much every week there’s a lot of good golf in there, which you’ve seen on Friday and today,” he said. “I’m just making a lot of mistakes.”

Adam Scott, coming off two straight PGA Tour victories, played the 18th hole in 5 over on the weekend. He made double bogey on Sunday and still shot 69.

The four-man sprint required some help from Day early, and an improbable birdie run by Merritt after he made the turn.

Day twice made bogey on the par 5s – a poor chip on No. 4 and a shot into the water on No. 6 – and went from a two-shot lead to a two-shot deficit. But he got right back into the mix with a towering shot out of the rough on No. 9 at a pin guarded by a bunker, so high that it landed softly on the green and rolled to a foot for a tap-in birdie.

Merritt chopped his way to a double bogey on No. 9 to fall four shots behind, seemingly out of the mix until he began the back nine with four straight birdie putts, and then holing out from the bunker from 40 feet on No. 14 for his fifth straight birdie to share the lead.

Stenson was the only one who didn’t have a chance on the 18th.

Day said he received a text from eight-time Bay Hill winner Tiger Woods on Sunday morning. He has talked about how much he turns to Woods for advice on such things as protecting a 54-hole lead. And then he delivered a clutch moment to win.

“It’s obviously those things – one of many – why he’s been the No. 1 player in the world, and why I’m the 150th player in the world,” Chappell said. “You just can’t bogey the last when you’re in contention, and hats off to Jason. He played well, real clutch down the stretch. And I’ll learn from this and get better.”

Canada’s David Hearn started the day in a tie for 7th, but posted an even-round of 72 Sunday to drop into a tie for 20th at 7-under 281.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Woody Austin holed out for eagle from a greenside bunker on the par-5 15th and held on to win the Tucson Conquistadores Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour Champions title.

The 52-year-old Austin bogeyed the par-4 final hole after driving left into the water and ended up beating Jim Carter by a stroke on Omni Tucson National’s Catalina Course.

Making his 28th start of the 50-and-over tour, Austin finished with a 7-under 65 for a 16-under 200 total. He was 5 under on the four par-5 holes with the eagle and three birdies.

Austin won the 2013 Sanderson Farms Championship at age 49 for the last of his four PGA Tour titles.

Playing in the group behind Austin, Carter birdied the 18th for a 68. The 54-year-old Carter, playing on a sponsor exemption, won the 2000 PGA Tour event at Tucson National for his lone title.

Bernhard Langer was third at 14 under after a 67. Playing alongside Austin, Langer drove into the right-side water on 18 and made a bogey. The German star was coming off a victory Feb. 14 in Naples, Florida.

Canadian Stephen Ames (69) and 2015 winner Marco Dawson (70) tied for fourth at 11 under. Scott Verplank, the second-round leader after his second straight 66, shot a 74 to drop into a tie for sixth at 10 under.

BROUSSARD, La. – Wesley Bryan won the Chitimacha Louisiana Open on Sunday for his first Web.com Tour title, closing with a 3-under 68 for a one-stroke victory.

The 25-year-old former South Carolina player birdied the par-4 17th and closed with a par in cool, windy conditions at Le Triomphe. He finished at 14-under 270 and earned $99,000.

Bryan was making his third tour start after earning a card in December at Q-school.

Argentina’s Julian Etulain was second after a 70. Martin Flores (70), Jonathan Byrd (71), Ryan Brehm (71) and Joel Dahmen (71) tied for third at 11 under.

Greg Chalmers had a one-stroke lead with seven holes to play, but had two bogeys and double bogey to drop back. The Australian finished with a 73 to tie for seventh at 10 under.

Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (73) tied for 55th at 2-under 282.

NEW DELHI – India’s SSP Chawrasia pulled off a two-shot win over defending champion Anirban Lahiri and Korea’s Jeunghun Wang with a birdie on the final hole Sunday at the US$1.66 million Hero Indian Open.

Chawrasia shot 71 for a 15-under-par 273, two better than Lahiri (69) and Wang (68). It was his third European Tour win and the fourth on Asian Tour. Lahiri, the reigning Asian Tour No. 1, missed his birdie attempt on the final hole while Chawrasia struck a third shot from the rough that landed within three feet of the cup at the Delhi Golf Club.

“It is a very important day for me. I have finished second four times in the Indian Open and every time that happened to me I wondered if I would ever be able to one day be the champion,” said Chawrasia, who won US$276,660.

“Anirban is a great player and a fine sportsman and I enjoy my duels with him,” Chawrasia said. “ Now quite possibly both of us will go to the Olympics as part of the Indian team.”

“There was a lot of pressure on me on the last hole,” he said. “This win means so much to me. I don’t know how I will celebrate it. I will let my wife (Simantini) do that for me. Last year when I lost, she was crying so now we can both enjoy this victory together,” he said with a smile.

“It was pretty intense. I got off to a great start but lost a bit of momentum after that,” Lahiri said. “I gave myself a lot of chances but missed quite few from 15-20 feet but at the end of day, SSP hung tough and played very well.”

“There is nothing sweeter than being the Indian Open champion. It was a disappointing finish after a promising start for me. But I am so happy for SSP. This win is huge for him,” Lahiri added.

Wang, a member of Team Asia at the EurAsia Cup earlier this year, came close to winning his first Asian Tour title, settling for a bogey-free 68 highlighted by four birdies.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Jason Day survived bursts of rain and a few bogeys for a 2-under 70 to keep his two-shot lead Saturday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The starting times were moved forward to avoid a forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Players still had to cope with occasionally heavy rain, though Bay Hill held up nicely and so did the 28-year-old Australian.

He was at 15-under 201 and had a two-shot lead over Henrik Stenson (70), Troy Merritt (67) and Kevin Chappell (67).

Stenson took the lead with a 10-foot eagle on the par-5 sixth hole, only to find a plugged lie in the bunker on the next hole. Day regained the lead with a birdie at No. 8 and kept it the rest of the way.

Lurking near the top of the leaderboard but well back of the lead is Canada’s David Hearn. The Brantford, Ont., native is sitting at 7-under in a tie for 13th after a 71 on Saturday. Abbotsford, B.C., native Adam Hadwin had a 73 and is 2-under.

PHOENIX – Sei Young Kim stumbled late Saturday afternoon in the JTBC Founders Cup, handing the lead to Eun-Hee Ji and putting Stacy Lewis, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson and many others in far better position than they expected.

Three strokes ahead after an eagle on the par-4 13th, Kim failed to birdie the par-5 15th and bogeyed the par-4 16th and par-3 17th. Her 2-under 70 dropped her into a tie for second with Lewis, a stroke behind Ji.

“It’s OK. I have one day, tomorrow,” said Kim, the 23-year-old South Korean player who won three times last season and was the LPGA Tour’s rookie of the year.

Ji made a 12-foot birdie putt on 17 and finished with a 65 to reach 18-under 198 on another perfect day at Desert Ridge’s Wildfire Golf Club. She is winless since the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open.

“My putting was really good,” Ji said. “My iron shot was really good, too. I was really struggling with my irons the last couple of weeks, but it’s getting better this week.”

Lewis had a 64, closing with a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th.

“These scores are just ridiculous,” Lewis said. “You just can’t look at a leaderboard. You just go out there and make as many birdies as you can.”

The Texan won the event in 2013 and finished second the last two years. She has nine runner-up finishes in a 43-event victory drought that dates to June 2014.

“I’m just really happy to see some good scores going up,” Lewis said.

Jacqui Concolino was two strokes back after a 68. The top-ranked Ko, Carlota Ciganda and Paula Creamer were another shot behind. Ko and Ciganda shot 64, and Paula Creamer had a 67.

Another shot back is Brooke Henderson. The Smiths Falls, Ont., native carded a 65 Saturday to climb into a tie for 8th at 14-under 202.

Carrie Vaughan returned to her roots in 2015 and while she didn’t win on the PGA of Ontario tour she renewed her passion for playing competitive golf.

It’s not easy for a teaching professional and golf coach at one of the country’s most prominent golf clubs to take time away from the range when she has 100-plus students looking for lessons, but that time away has proven to be a breath of fresh air for the veteran coach at The Glen Abbey Academy.

The 44-year-old former Futures Tour player teed it up in six PGA of Ontario tournaments in 2015 and although she didn’t win one, Vaughan walked away with enough cumulative points to give her first PGA of Ontario Women’s Player of the Year award.

“This past year I wanted to make playing in events a priority for myself and I plan to continue along that path in 2016,” says Vaughan who was introduced to the game of golf by her father as a seven or eight-year-old in Rothesay, New Brunswick. As a single parent, Carrie’s dad would let her and her two older brothers and sister walk to neighbouring Riverside Country Club so they could play golf during the summer months, while he went to work.

“I appreciate the award as PGA of Ontario Women’s Player of the Year because even though there were days when I went out and shot 80, it’s not just about the score. Once a month I had the opportunity to pretend I was a tour player and it was a lot of fun. I love being out on the golf course playing and competing,” says Vaughan who won less than $500 for competing in the six tournaments.

Carrie finished T2 in the PGA of Ontario Women’s Summer Challenge, third in the Spring Open, Fall Classic and Player of the Year Championship, fourth at the PGA of Ontario Championship and fifth in the PGA of Ontario Mixed Championship. “I like to challenge myself even though you really never find enough time to prepare yourself for a tournament with everything else that is built into life around you,” she says.

From the time she was eight until she was 27 years old, the staff and members at The Riverside Country Club became her extended family. Carrie started working at the club at the age of 10, picking balls on the range and she went on to work in the golf shop for years. Members would sponsor and support her for three years as she played on the Futures Tour with the aspiration of making it to the LPGA Tour.

“I learned that life on tour is difficult and it’s not as glamourous as you might think,” she says. “There is a very fine line between being good and being great. I watched friends make it to the LPGA Tour by being one stroke better than me and our lives are completely different because of that one swing. However I would never take back that time. I’m so happy I did it. It was the best experience of my life, but I could not have done it without the support from home. In the end I was tired of not being good enough. I lost a little bit of that belief in myself and couldn’t look my sponsors in the face and tell them that I still believed I could make it on the LPGA Tour – my time was up.

Vaughan landed at Hidden Lake Golf Club in Burlington where she taught for seven years before getting a phone call from fellow New Brunswicker, Sean Casey Director of Instruction at Glen Abbey, asking if she would be interested in spearheading a girls’ only golf program. The program for girls ages eight to 17 has evolved from nothing to 85 girls in the last nine years and unparalleled as a girls program in Canada if not the world.

“I think it’s good for the girls to see me out there competing and trying to do my best. I may not win, but I’m out there,” says Vaughan who did have a victory in the Maple Downs G&CC Pro-Am in 2015 with an impressive round that included six birdies and one bogey – only the third time in her career that she has broken 70 in a competitive match.

“As a member of the PGA of Ontario I believe it’s important as a professional to get out there and play. It really is part of my job to be out there playing. I would like to see more female members of the PGA of Ontario taking the time to compete. Some people say they can’t afford the time off, but the way I look at it now, can you afford not too?”