PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Much like his entire career, Jerry Kelly was just another player on the golf course Friday at The Players Championship.

Tiger Woods kept the biggest gallery wondering how much longer they would see him when he flirted with missing the cut until he delivered a moment rarely seen of late. He made a putt that mattered, a 10-foot birdie that allowed him to stick around for two more days.

In the afternoon, Rory McIlroy made it easy on himself – by his standard at the TPC Sawgrass – with a dull round of 71 that kept him in contention. Dull can be good on the Stadium Course that meted out its share of punishment.

And the island-green 17th was wild as ever.

What most everyone missed was the 48-year-old Kelly carving up the front nine with five birdies that carried him to a 7-under 65, giving him the low round this week and share of the lead with Kevin Na.

“I enjoy adrenaline,” Kelly said. “I am 48. I know it almost ravages the body as much as it helps it as you start getting older, but I would like to hang out for another couple of days and have some fun with it.”

Kelly and Na, who settled down after a wild start for a 69, where at 8-under 136. Both have some history on this golf course.

Na was the 54-hole lead at The Players three years ago until he faded under intense scrutiny of serious swing issues.

Kelly had a two-shot lead over Woods in 2001 going into a final round that took two days to complete because of storms. Woods went on to win, and two weeks later he completed his grand sweep of the majors at Augusta National.

Fourteen years later, Kelly and Woods are in different roles.

“I figured I would have another chance at this golf course,” Kelly said. “I didn’t think it would be that long, but it’s just strange. This whole career has gone by in the blink of an eye.”

Kelly and Na were two shots clear of Rickie Fowler (69), Chris Kirk (68), Canada’s David Hearn (71) and Branden Grace (67).

Not much is left from all that star power on both ends of the draw at the start of the week.

McIlroy was in a featured grouping of the new generation, but the other two – Masters champion Jordan Spieth and Jason Day – now are old news. Spieth spent too much time trying to save par and finished with a meaningless bogey for a 72 to miss by three shots. Day started the second round tied with McIlroy and had two 7s on his card within four holes. He closed with a double bogey for an 81.

Phil Mickelson, who played in the group ahead of Woods, had two 6s and a 7 on his way to a 76 to miss the cut for the third straight year.

“I was thinking to myself as I was walking around, `I can’t believe I’ve actually won here,’ you know?” Mickelson said.

Woods, in his first start since he showed a remarkable short-game recovery at the Masters, hovered around the cut line most of the day until he got to the par-5 ninth for his last hole. He choked up for a soft pitching wedge to 10 feet, made the birdie and showed the kind of emotion he once reserved for big shots and big moments.

That gave him a 71 for even-par 144, making the cut on the number.

Given the nature of the Stadium Course, and the quality of the field, making the cut on the number means he was only eight shots out of the lead.

“I feel like I’m playing well enough to get myself up there,” Woods said. “I just need one good round and narrow up that gap between myself and the lead, and I feel like I can do that.”

Woods will be paired with Canada’s Graham DeLaet Saturday.

Na was a different player in 2012. He was vilified for his slow play, which he attributed to having the yips with his swing. He simply couldn’t take the club back, and there times that when he did, he would purposely swing over the ball so he could start over. It was difficult to watch. It was even harder on Na.

But he has battled through it and came into The Players at No. 22 in the world ranking.

“I think I’m mentally tougher because I had gone through that, and I’m a lot more happier,” Na said.

Fowler was poised to close in on the lead until his approach on the par-5 16th drifted too far right and went into the water for a bogey. Fowler bounced back with a birdie on the island green at the par-3 17th, and he had a 3-foot birdie attempt that fooled him on the 18th.

Even so, he was two shots behind and brings a little extra motivation with him. In a magazine survey of players, in which they didn’t have to give their names, Fowler and Ian Poulter tied with 24 percent of the vote for the most overrated on tour. Fowler has won twice worldwide and is No. 13 in the world, mainly on the strength of his four top-5 finishes in the majors last year.

“If there’s a time where I need something to kind of give me a kick in the butt, then I can think of that and it will put me in the right frame of mind to go out there and take care of business,” Fowler said.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The biggest star at The Players Championship was not Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth playing together in the morning. And it wasn’t Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in back-to-back groups in the afternoon.

It was the TPC Sawgrass all day long in another round of big numbers, curious shots and endless entertainment.

Charley Hoffman was among four players tied for the lead at 5-under 67. He was thrilled with his eight birdies, the most of anyone Thursday. What turned a great day into a very good one was that triple bogey out of nowhere right after he made the turn.

How does one make a 7 on the usually harmless first hole?

“Pardon my French,” Hoffman began, before using a familiar English word not fit for print to describe all seven of his bad shots. In fairness, the seventh shot was good. He made a 4-foot putt to keep it from being an 8.

David Hearn of Canada, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Kevin Na also had 67. Each made only one bogey. It was boring, which never hurts around here.

McIlroy also had a boring round by his standards – two birdies, an eagle, one bogey for a 69. It’s a rare occasion when he’ll call that a good day.

“I think that’s what this course is all about,” McIlroy said. “It’s about staying patient. There’s a lot of pars on my card, but I was able to pick off a couple of birdies and a nice eagle on 16. I’m happy with the start, for sure.”

Spieth wasn’t so fortunate. He was 40 yards away from the green at the par-5 11th and used a wedge three times to get on the green. That doesn’t explain the horrible lie he had in the grass, followed by the lie in the sand just below the lip of the bunker. He shot a 75, matching his worst score of the year.

“Just a really, really poor day,” Spieth said.

Woods hit a tee shot on a par 3 that went into the water, which is not unusual. But it wasn’t on the island-green at the 17th. It was at No. 8, with a clunker that found a creek some 40 yards short of the green. Woods didn’t even know there was water on that hole.

“I’ve never seen it,” he said after a 73.

At least one player made a 7 or worse on 10 of the holes on the Stadium Course. Brooks Koepka made a 7 on the 17th by putting two balls into the water. And then he made an 8 on the next hole by putting only one ball in the water. He played the other 16 holes in 1 under.

The Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass holds a certain mystique after more than three decades. Even in reasonable conditions – warmth, sunshine and a little wind – no one fared better than a 67.

After 12 hours of theater that Sawgrass so often provides, they return to repeat the process.

There was more energy than usual for a Thursday morning, especially with Woods and Mickelson (73) playing in the afternoon. McIlroy is No. 1 in the world and coming off a win at the Match Play Championship, while Spieth became the de facto challenger with a dominant Masters win that moved him to No. 2 in the world.

They warmed up next to each other on the range. And it was clear from the start this day would be a solid one for McIlroy, not so much for Spieth. Along for the ride was Jason Day, who isn’t exactly on the B-list of rising stars. Day, who jokingly described himself as the third wheel, had a 69 with a double bogey on the 18th.

“I’ve got to beat those guys, but I think the biggest thing is not beating myself,” Day said.

Big numbers can be found anywhere, though. Hoffman didn’t see his coming.

“Obviously, you don’t ever want to take a triple, double, quad, whatever it is,” Hoffman said. “But at least I gave myself time to get them back. It’s better than doing it on the 72nd hole, I can guarantee you that.”

The 18th hole was no picnic after a long day. Mickelson hit the wooden plank and went into the water for a double bogey. He shot 73 with five birdies. Adam Scott wasted a reasonable start by finding water for a double bogey on the 18th. Woods hit into the water and made double bogey.

Two dozen players broke 70, while 76 players in the 144-man field were at par or better.

Spieth, who also had a 75 when he missed the cut at Torrey Pines, felt something wrong with his alignment when he arrived Monday, and he still hasn’t sorted it out. He got behind quickly, and that didn’t help. Most telling of his day was No. 11.

His second shot was left of the green in a grass bunker, the ball sitting so far down in the grass that Spieth walked up to it and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” With a full, powerful swing, he advanced it some 50 feet – from a regular lie, that shot would have gone 110 yards – to just under the lip of a bunker. It was another bad lie, and he only advanced the next one 18 feet to the collar.

“It’s just one of those days where I started maybe looking into it a little too much rather than just accepting it and going forward,” he said. “Just going to have to find some answers.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – With his feet positioned near wooden planks and his ball resting on the fringe at the treacherous island green, Tiger Woods tried to decide between bellying his sand wedge and toeing his putter.

He went with the iron.

Good call. It resulted in Woods’ most memorable – maybe even best – shot during the opening round at The Players Championship on Thursday.

Woods holed out from the edge of the daunting par-3 17th at the TPC Sawgrass, making a highlight shot that helped him shoot 1-over 73 in windy conditions. Woods ended the day six shots behind the leaders but feeling good about his game.

“Probably the highest score I could have shot today,” said Woods, who was over par in the first round for the fifth consecutive event. “I didn’t get much out of that round. I hit the ball better than the score indicates, and I got a couple good breaks and never took advantage of them.

“Just really struggled hitting the putts hard enough to get them to the hole. Even when I tried to ram them, I still didn’t get the ball to the hole, so I need to make a better adjustment on that.”

Maybe he should just go with the wedge.

It worked to perfection at the 17th.

His ball hit the back of the cut, rolled around and dropped. He smiled, tipped his hat to the raucous crowd and looked as if he had found a little something with back-to-back birdies that got him to 1 under as he walked to the 18th tee

But he failed to stay in red numbers on the final hole.

Woods took an aggressive line and found the water off the tee. He finished with a double-bogey 6.

“I tried to hit kind of a low, hard, cut 3-wood up there and just kind of bank it up against the wind,” he said. “I just tried to hit a low one, tried to get on top of it and I just happened to pull it just a touch. It was the right shape, the right height, but my start line was probably just a few yards left, which ended up costing me.”

It was one of just a few errant shots for Woods, who won The Players the last time he played in 2013.

He yanked his first two drives left, leading to a bogey at the par-4 first, and really turned heads when he shanked his tee shot at the par-3 eighth. His ball bounced into a water hazard he said he didn’t even know was there. He dropped and ended up with a double.

“It’s only one bad swing, one bad shot,” he said. “I had to fix what I had starting out the round more importantly. Eight just, I just happened to make a bad swing. So what, move on. But I had a bad pattern starting out and I rectified that, which was nice.

“I put together a pretty good round and until 18.”

Woods missed seven months across parts of last year while recovering from back surgery. He sat out two months this year to work on his game – particularly his chipping – after posting a career-high 82 in the Phoenix Open and withdrawing during the first round at Torrey Pines because of tightness in his back.

He has shown much better form since – especially with that nifty shot at the 17th.

“He looked all right,” said playing partner Adam Scott, who shot an even-par 70. “I haven’t played with him for a while. He hit a couple bad shots, but it was tough out there today. I hit a couple bad shots, too. I don’t think anyone made any putts in our group, scores were pretty good considering nothing was going in.”

Before every round Rory McIlroy plays on the PGA Tour, he goes through an extensive warmup routine. Here’s an all-access look inside what McIlroy is working on.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy turns into a different player when he tees it up at the TPC Sawgrass.

It’s not by choice.

McIlroy found out quickly that his free-swinging power game isn’t the best fit at The Players Championship. In three appearances, he never broke par. That’s when he decided to scale back his game and play a bit more conservatively.

He at least is making progress. After missing the cut three times in four years – he didn’t even bother playing the other year – McIlroy has a pair of top 10s. A year ago, he closed with a 69-66 weekend and tied for sixth, though he was never in contention.

“It’s always hard for me when I can’t get driver in my hand, because I feel like when I get driver in my hand I can give myself an advantage over the rest of the field,” McIlroy said. “It’s just about being very patient and approaching it a different way, winning a different way.”

The Players Championship begins Thursday with the strongest field in golf.

It also might be the most wide-open field in golf.

The PGA Championship is renowned for having the most players from the top 100 in the world ranking. It also has a few past champions (John Daly, Mark Brooks) and 20 club pros. What differentiates The Players is that everyone in the field is capable of winning. The last player in was 21-year-old Justin Thomas, who already has played in the final group on the weekend at three tournaments this year.

Martin Kaymer is the defending champion. Tiger Woods won the year before that. Those are multiple major champions. The list of champions at Sawgrass also includes Fred Funk and Henrik Stenson, Tim Clark and Fred Couples.

McIlroy recited a favorite line about the golf course. It favors no one and tests everyone.

It might not be the same feeling as Phil Mickelson winning the British Open on a links course, but McIlroy believes a victory in the so-called fifth major would make him a more complete player because it’s a different kind of golf that he prefers to play.

“Winning around this golf course would … I definitely have a feeling that if I was able to do that, I would be able to win a different way,” he said.

He compared it with Wentworth, where he had struggled until winning the BMW PGA Championship last year. Then again, it was a wet week in England and he was able to hit driver more than he normally would.

Asked to describe the course in one word, McIlroy wasted little time.

“Frustrating,” he said.

One-word answers from other players over the years have included “exciting” and “dramatic” and “challenging.” Geoff Ogilvy once took five days to find the right answer. He saw a reporter who had asked the question walking along the 14th fairway in the final round, walked over to him and said, “Annoying.”

One other word comes to mind for Thursday’s opening round: Anticipation.

Only this has nothing to do with the golf course.

Playing along McIlroy on Thursday morning will be Masters champion Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, who in this case might feel like a third wheel. McIlroy and Spieth have been the center of golf over the last few months – McIlroy because he is No. 1 in the world, Spieth as the Masters champion and No. 2 in the world.

A budding rivalry?

Not quite. Or at least not yet.

“He is as far ahead of me as I am with the next eight guys,” Spieth said, referring to the gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in the world ranking. “So with that being said, it’s kind of anybody’s game to get up and make it interesting with him. I just happen to be the one that occupies No. 2 right now.”

McIlroy responded to all the hype over Spieth and his green jacket by winning the Match Play Championship last week in San Francisco. He provided another answer to the chatter about a rivalry by practically yawning.

“Last year it was Rickie (Fowler). This year it’s Jordan, might be someone else, could have been Tiger,” McIlroy said. “There’s been four or five rivalries over the past year. So it doesn’t really do anything for me.”

He then borrowed a line that Jack Nicklaus once told Tiger Woods. Both had a revolving door of rivals over the years.

“As long as I’m one of them, the other can be whoever it is,” McIlroy said. “I don’t mind.”

Nearly forgotten in all this hype is Tiger Woods, who is playing for the first time since he resurrected his short game and tied for 17th at the Masters. Woods is playing in the afternoon with Kaymer and Adam Scott, a trio of champions at Sawgrass.

There is an urgency to find a new star, a new rivalry, in just about any sport. Perhaps this should serve as a reminder to slow down. A year ago at The Players Championship, McIlroy was No. 11 in the world and in one of his mini-slumps.

The No. 1 player? That was Woods, who now is No. 125.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods says he hasn’t been sleeping well because of what he calls a tough three days – his split with Lindsey Vonn and the anniversary of his father’s death.

Woods and the Olympic ski champion announced on Sunday they decided to end their relationship because of their hectic travel schedules. That was nine years to day that Woods’ father, Earl, died.

Woods says this three-day window through Tuesday – the anniversary of his father’s memorial service – is “brutal” on him. And he said the split with Vonn only adds to it.

He says he was rusty and tired playing a nine-hole practice round at The Players Championship.

Woods won the last time he was at the TPC Sawgrass in 2013. He missed last year while recovering from back surgery.

SAN FRANCISCO – Rory McIlroy didn’t need another comeback to win the Match Play Championship.

Three times in the last three days, McIlroy had to rally from a late deficit to reach the championship match Sunday at TPC Harding Park. He removed any suspense by winning four straight holes against an errant Gary Woodland and never looked back.

Woodland conceded the 16th hole, and McIlroy captured his second World Golf Championship with a 4-and-2 victory.

Three weeks after Jordan Spieth won the Masters and emerged as the most likely rival, McIlroy reminded the world of his No. 1 ranking.

“I’m really proud of myself with how I showed a lot of character early on with coming back from deficits,” McIlroy said. “I played really solid golf. My second WGC and first win in the States this year. I couldn’t be happier.”

It was the first time since Tiger Woods in 2008 that the No. 1 seed won golf’s most unpredictable tournament. Woods did it two other times, and it was never easy.

That was the case for McIlroy until the final, and even then, he had a few nervous moments on the back nine.

McIlroy was 4 up after matching birdies with Woodland on the 10th hole when he began making mistakes – a poor bunker shot on No. 11, a wild tee shot on No. 12, an different chip from the left side of the 13th green.

Woodland had a 4-foot par putt on the 13th to cut the lead to 1 up with plenty of golf course left. He never looked comfortable and ran it over the right edge, and momentum shifted squarely back to McIlroy.

He won the 14th with a par when Woodland left a long birdie attempted woefully short. And he closed out the match when Woodland blasted out of a bunker and over the 16th green, missing the next shot and removing his cap.

“My putt drops on 13 and it’s a different ball game,” Woodland said. “But I missed that one. And he was like a shark. Smelled blood, and it was gave over quickly.”

McIlroy was 2 down with two holes to play and risked being eliminated Friday when he rallied against Billy Horschel to win in 20 holes. In a quarterfinal match that spilled into Sunday morning, he was 1 down to Paul Casey on the 17th hole and wound up beating him in 22 holes.

His strongest play was in the semifinals against Jim Furyk, who put enormous pressure on McIlroy over the closing holes by hitting four straight approach shots close. McIlroy delivered a birdie-birdie-eagle finish to win.

The first birdie was to halve the hole on the 16th and avoid going 2 down with 2 to play. He hit 7-iron to 4 feet for birdie on the 17th to square the match. And with Furyk facing a 20-foot birdie putt, McIlroy ended the match by rolling in a 45-foot eagle putt across the green for a 1-up victory.

Woodland faced an early deficit to Danny Willett of England in the semifinals until he turned it around for a 3-and-2 victory. Going into the championship match, Woodland had trailed on only 11 of the 101 holes he had played all week.

Against McIlroy, he never led.

They halved holes with bogeys until Woodland kept making them. His powerful driving, such a strength over four days, deserted him in the championship match and McIlroy made him pay for it.

In the consolation match, Willett defeated Furyk on the 16th hole and picked up $646,000, which will go a long way toward PGA Tour membership if he wants it.

McIlroy won for the second time this year and the 16th time worldwide. It was his 10th PGA Tour victory, joining Woods (24) and Jack Nicklaus (12) as the only players with at least 10 victories at age 25 or younger.

McIlroy turns 26 on Monday.

The Match Play Championship featured a new format this year to keep more top players in the field for at least three days. McIlroy was 3-0 in the round-robin format, and wound up winning all seven matches to pick up the $1.57 million prize.

Woodland earned $930,000 for finishing second.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn are no longer a power couple in American sports.

Golf’s biggest star and the Olympic ski champion said Sunday they were breaking up after more than two years. But in ending their relationship, both were in complete harmony in their separate announcements on social media, citing busy lives and times they will always “cherish.”

“After nearly three years together, Tiger and I have mutually decided to end our relationship,” Vonn said Sunday on her Facebook page. “I will always cherish the memories that we’ve created together. Unfortunately, we both lead incredibly hectic lives that force us to spend a majority of our time apart. He and his beautiful family will always hold a special place in my heart.”

Vonn, an Olympic ski champion, this year set the record for most World Cup titles.

“Lindsey and I have mutually decided to stop dating,” Woods said on his website. “I have great admiration, respect and love for Lindsey and I’ll always cherish our time together. She has been amazing with Sam and Charlie and my entire family. Unfortunately, we lead very hectic lives and are both competing in demanding sports. It’s difficult to spend time together.”

Both are divorced.

They were last seen in public at the Masters, where Vonn accompanied Woods’ children – 7-year-old daughter Sam, 6-year-old son Charlie – when they caddied for him in the Par 3 Tournament.

Woods was in Italy in January when Vonn broke the World Cup record, and he was photographed with a skeleton-pattern mask that when dropped revealed he was missing a tooth. Woods later said a videographer bumped into him and jarred it loose.

He also was in Colorado where she competed before a home crowd in February, right after Woods announced he was taking time away from golf because his game wasn’t up to his standards. He shot an 82 in the Phoenix Open to miss the cut by 12 shots. He withdrew after 11 holes at Torrey Pines the following week with tightness in his back.

Vonn had become a regular at the majors when Woods played. She also was at the Hero World Challenge that he hosts in December in Orlando, Florida.

Rumors they were involved began during her knee injury in 2013 amid reports he had sent his plane for her. Given his demand for privacy, it was rare when Woods went public in March 2013 to announce they were dating.

It was accompanied by portraits of both on Facebook and his website. Woods said at Bay Hill that year he wanted to limit what he called the “stalkarazzi” and the “sleazy websites” that were following them.

Both have been recovering from injuries, and Vonn said recently on “Late Night with Seth Myers” that they’ve helped each other.

“He’s been through a lot of injuries, and so have I,” Vonn said. “It’s nice to be in the gym with someone that knew what you were going through. And we kind of just pushed each other back to health.”

That appearance led to an amusing exchange when Meyers asked if she had always been interested in golf. Vonn playfully squirmed in her seat before saying, “I love golf.” It was pointed out that for Woods to attend a downhill event, the race would be much shorter than a round of golf.

“It’s like five hours,” Vonn said. “It’s a long time.”

Golf went from two sporting couples to none in the last 11 months. Just under a year ago, Rory McIlroy broke off his engagement to tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. McIlroy went on to win the BMW PGA Championship that week, which is the flagship tournament in Europe.

Woods plays next week in the PGA Tour’s top event – The Players Championship. However, he has not won since August 2013 and will be out of the top 120 in the next world ranking when he tees it up at TPC Sawgrass.

SAN FRANCISCO – The new Match Play Championship felt a lot like the old one Friday when one top seed after another began making plans to go home. Rory McIlroy kept some star power at TPC Harding Park with a comeback that shows why he is No. 1 in the world.

After making only one birdie, McIlroy finished with three in a row.

Facing elimination, he holed a 20-foot putt on the 17th to stay in the game. Another birdie followed to send it to overtime. And after another poor chip by Billy Horschel, McIlroy was on his way to the round of 16.

“I dug deep when I needed to,” McIlroy said.

Masters champion Jordan Spieth wasn’t so fortunate. Neither was Bubba Watson, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia. Only two of the top 10 seeds – McIlroy and Jim Furyk at No. 5 – reached the round of 16 that starts Saturday with single-elimination.

Spieth was all square in a back-and-forth match with Lee Westwood that featured chip-ins for halves on consecutive holes. Westwood delivered the clutch shot with a 6-iron to 12 feet for birdie on the 17th, and Spieth failed to birdie the 18th.

“Lee played well and pulled off the shots when he needed to at the end,” Spieth said. “And I didn’t.”

Furyk had to go 20 holes to beat Martin Kaymer, and then he went one extra hole as a spectator with plenty at stake. Furyk was only assured of winning his four-man group if George Coetzee beat Thongchai Jaidee. The South African won in 21 holes, and Furyk advanced because he beat Coetzee on Wednesday.

“Kind of an awkward feeling,” Furyk said.

Friday was all about elimination, and it came in all shapes and sizes – a battle of undefeated players, a three-way playoff and some head-to-head tiebreakers.

McIlroy only had to beat Horschel, whom he hadn’t faced in this format since their contentious battles in the Walker Cup in 2007 when both were young and prone to irritate each other with their celebrations. McIlroy had only one birdie until making three straight at the end (one for a halve at the 16th), but none was bigger than his 20-foot putt on the 17th.

“It was either hole it or go home,” McIlroy said. “It was obviously the best putt of the whole day.”

Horschel missed his birdie putt to win the match. Horschel chipped too strong and missed another birdie putt that would have won the match on the 18th. Horschel squandered yet another birdie opportunity on the par-5 first hole after a perfect tee shot. And then on the par-3 second, he chipped too strong again and missed an 8-foot par putt that gave McIlroy the match.

There were no hard feelings. That Walker Cup was a long time ago and they get along just fine these days. This was a good match with no animosity.

“Not as much as Keegan and Miguel, apparently,” McIlroy said.

That would be Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who went nose-to-nose during a dispute about a drop Bradley took. It was a misunderstanding until Bradley’s caddie got involved, the Spaniard effectively told him to butt out and Bradley came to his caddie’s defense.

That was only a sideshow on a day filled with far more interesting developments.

– Twelve players who won their groups went 3-0.

– Four players who advanced were the lowest seed in their group, with John Senden (No. 60) easily advancing with a perfect record.

– Tommy Fleetwood of England had to play 58 holes to reach the round of 16 in his first Match Play Championship. Hunter Mahan also was 3-0 and still hasn’t seen the final three holes in any of his matches. Mahan, a past champion of this event, has played only 41 holes.

– McIlroy, Westwood, Gary Woodland and Louis Oosthuizen all won matches between players who had not lost. Oosthuizen struck a blow by beating Bubba Watson on the first extra hole.

– Fleetwood, Branden Grace and J.B. Holmes all advanced after losing their matches Wednesday. Holmes beat Brooks Koepka, who was eliminated in a tiebreaker. Grace, Zach Johnson and Charley Hoffman all finished 2-1, and Grace won with a birdie on the third extra hole.

– Rickie Fowler and Senden won their matches, even though they already were set for the round of 16.

Westwood and Spieth were all square when Spieth chipped in for birdie on the 15th, and Westwood halved the hole with a 10-foot putt. Westwood hit out of a bunker and clear over the green on the 16th, flubbed a chip and then halved the hole by chipping in for par.

“I walked up to 17 and said, `We’re even.’ And he played 17 and 18 better than I did,” Spieth said.

Westwood hit 6-iron to 12 feet and gave a baby fist pump – rare emotion for the Englishman – when he made birdie, which spoke to the quality of the match.

“I think probably getting out of the group is really one of the toughest things his week,” Westwood.

SAN FRANCISCO – A meaningless match sure didn’t look like one Friday when Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez got into a nose-to-nose argument in the Match Play Championship.

Both players, already eliminated from reaching the weekend, were on the 18th hole when Jimenez questioned a drop Bradley received. Bradley’s caddie, Steve “Pepsi” Hale, got involved and Jimenez told him to shut up.

“You don’t tell me to shut up,” Hale said.

Bradley took exception, got in the face of the Spaniard and told him, “You don’t tell my caddie to shut up.”

“I felt like he was being very disrespectful to me – not only me, but my caddie,” Bradley said in the parking lot. “I felt like I had to stand up for my boy here. Me and Pepsi have been through a lot.”

Jimenez met with reporters outside the locker room and said it was over.

“Whatever he say, now is finished,” Jimenez said. “The round is finished and everything is done. We had a little discussion, but it is done.”

The 51-year-old Spaniard nodded his head when asked if Bradley took the discussion too personal. Jimenez said he was only concerned that when Bradley took a drop that it rolled more than two club-lengths away. Bradley said there was no reason for Jimenez to get involved because it was being handled by a rules official.

“Nobody listen to me. But anyway, this is over now,” Jimenez said.

According to PGA Tour rules official, Bradley was taking relief from a temporary immovable obstruction. After his drop, he still didn’t have a clear swing and had to drop again. Jimenez thought Bradley could only take another drop if the ball rolled more than two club-lengths. He wasn’t aware a fence was still in his way.

Mark Russell, the tour’s vice president of competition, said Jimenez had “every right” to step in and raise questions.

Jimenez wound up winning the match, 2 up, when Bradley failed to make birdie on the 18th. Bradley now has lost eight consecutive singles matches in this event, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

They had short conversation on the 18th green, though the way Bradley walked briskly off made it clear that nothing was settled.

“It was just a heat-of-the-moment thing,” Bradley said. “It was disappointing. I’m pretty bummed out about it. It was just … I had a ruling and he felt like he needed to intervene and I felt like he was being inappropriate to me and my caddie.

“I have nothing but respect for him. He’s a great player out here,” Bradley said. “But I have to be able to stick up for myself when I feel something is wrong.”