PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Rory McIlroy bounced back from a rough start for a 4-under 66 that gave him a one-shot lead heading into the weekend at the Honda Classic.

Tiger Woods had to scramble Friday to narrowly make the cut.

McIlroy made six birdies in a 10-hole stretch and looked good from tee-to-green at PGA National to take the lead into the weekend of a PGA Tour event for the first time in 18 months.

McIlroy was at 11-under 129.

Brendon de Jonge was tied for the lead until making bogey on his final hole for a 64. He was one behind.

Woods hit only two greens in regulation on the back nine of PGA National. His only birdie was on the 13th when he chipped in. He shot 69 to make the cut on the number.

Two-shots back of Woods was Mike Weir, who shot an even-par 70 Friday. This is the seventh missed cut of the season for the former Masters champion.

Stephen Ames also missed the 36-hole cut after combining rounds of 73-75 to sit 8-over.

David Hearn is tied for 23rd after an even-par 70 on the day.

Victor Dubuisson gained a ton of new fans with his phenomenal par saves from the cacti and desert flora at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Arizona. His performance earned him comparisons to Phil Mickelson and the late Seve Ballesteros.

Dubuisson rebounded from 3-down to Jason Day and forced the final match to 23 holes before Day eventually prevailed.

Canadian golf fans may have the opportunity to see him in Montréal this summer at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open.

“Yes, the invitation has been sent to his team,” confirmed Bill Paul, tournament director for the RBC Canadian Open, which will be held at The Royal Montreal Golf Club from July 24 to 27.

“It is the least we can do for the great golf fans of Quebec,” he added, good-naturedly from Golf Canada’s office in Oakville, Ont.

Bill Paul was indispensable to the success of our national Open championship at Royal Montreal in 1997 and 2001, in addition to the unforgettable Presidents Cup of 2007, all held at the prestigious Montréal area course.

That said, what was the reaction of the Dubuisson clan?

“His people will see. Agents always like to see how far they can take things when a new phenom emerges. What matters is that they didn’t say no,” added Paul.

Dubuisson’s Breakthrough

“The Bush” as the talented Frenchman has been nicknamed is 23 years old. He’s currently ranked ranked 23rd in the world and was the world’s top ranked amateur from November to December of 2009.

After his victory at the Turkish Airlines Open last November, at the head of a field that included Tiger Woods (his idol from the age of 12), as well as Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, he took 3rd in the DP World Tour Championship and finished the season in 6th place in the Race to Dubai. He also finished tied for 10th at the 2008 Canadian Amateur. He is anything but a flash in the pan.

He is third in the Ryder Cup running, behind Thomas Bjorn and Sergio Garcia.

He would be a great asset to the tournament as it heads to Montréal – his French background and star status would make him popular with fans as well as with media.

At the same time, Victor Dubuisson needs the RBC Canadian Open.

As strange as it may seem, Dubuisson must count on sponsor exemptions in order to play and qualify for the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup.

Scheduled the same week as the RBC Canadian Open is the Russian Open. The European Tour event will be held in Moscow with a purse of $1 million versus the $5.5 million offered in Montréal.

“Our offer is on the table,” said Paul.

Tickets and volunteer information for the 2014 RBC Canadian Open can be found online at rbccanadianopen.com.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – On the course where Rory McIlroy first rose to No. 1, he looked as if he might be headed in that direction again.

McIlroy swung freely and walked briskly on his way to a 7-under 63 on Thursday, with birdies on the last two holes at PGA National giving him a one-shot lead over Russell Henley after the first round of the Honda Classic.

If nothing else, it was big improvement from the last official round he played on PGA National.

McIlroy was 7 over through eight holes last year when he became so frustrated with mounting expectations and a slumping game that he walked off the course in the middle of the second round. He said it was a mistake that he would never repeat.

He apparently buried the past with his clubs, if not his head.

“It’s not something I really thought about out there,” McIlroy said. “Coming in this week, I knew that I was playing well and I just wanted to try and get off to a good start. … Regardless of what happened last year or where it is, it’s always nice to shoot a round like this and get yourself in the mix early.”

Tiger Woods wouldn’t know the feeling so far this year.

In first tournament in a month, Woods couldn’t make a birdie putt early and had to scramble for pars late in his round. A birdie on the last hole gave him a 71, leaving him eight shots behind.

“I hit it good starting out, hit it kind of scrappy in the middle and then hit it good at the end,” Woods said. “But it was just one or the other. I either hit it good and missed the putt, and then scrap around and make a putt.”

In his other two events this year, Woods was eight shots behind after the opening round at Torrey Pines and five shots behind at Dubai. He goes into the second round Friday outside the cut line.

Henley opened with five birdies and six holes before he cooled off for a 64. Past champion Rory Sabbatini, William McGirt and Jamie Donaldson of Wales were at 65.

Zach Johnson was four shots behind and thrilled about his 67. He hit two shots into the water on his way to a quadruple-bogey 8 on his second hold of the tournament. The former Masters champ followed with seven birdies to get back in the game.

“It was a day where it could have gone the other way _ quick,” Johnson said.

David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., also shot a 67. Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., carded a 72, and Calgary’s Stephen Ames is another shot back at 73.

McIlroy has been shifting gears since late last year, which he closed out with a win at the Australian Open. He had chances to win in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and he played well in a second-round loss to Harris English last week at Match Play.

But this looked like the McIlroy who won two majors, each by eight shots, bobbing along the fairways and swinging with no fear. It helped to make a few putts, such as the 25-foot birdie on No. 2 and a 45-foot birdie putt on No. 11. He had a few par saves that kept him motoring along, such as the up-and-down from 40 yards at No. 9, making a putt from just outside 10 feet.

Boy Wonder took off from there. He hit into 8 feet for birdie on the 493-yard 10th hole, made the long one at No. 11 and then stuffed a gap wedge into 6 feet on No. 12.

“You can’t fake it around here,” McIlroy said. “You have to play well to shoot good scores, and I was able to do that today.”

McIlroy put last year behind him, though it was hard to ignore the turnaround.

He was the defending champion and No. 1 in the world last year, newly signed to a big Nike contract and struggling to break par. He also was in the early stages of leaving a management company for the second time in two years. It all got to be too much, and as he walked up to the 18th green at PGA National, he shook hands and headed straight to the parking lot. He said then he was “not in a good place mentally.”

Now he is playing well. He is adjusted to his equipment. He’s engaged to tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, who followed him around the golf course.

“I’m in a great place,” McIlroy said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

The finish didn’t hurt. The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland took aim at the flag over the water on the par-3 17th and made a 12-foot birdie putt. He finished with a fairway metal into the front bunker, and a simple shot to 4 feet for birdie on the par-5 closing hole.

He still hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since the BMW Championship at the end of the 2012 season. He hasn’t won on the European Tour since Dubai at the end of that year to capture the money title on both sides of the Atlantic.

But with every tournament, he’s moving in the right direction.

“I’ve reached a point now where I’m very comfortable with everything in my game and my swing,” he said. “I’m seeing shots the way I want to see them. When I do that, I feel like the scores are just a byproduct of all the hard work and making good swings.”

DIVOTS: Phil Mickelson, playing PGA National for the first time since he was an amateur, had two birdies and a double bogey for a 70. … Masters champion Adam Scott, in his first tournament in six weeks, opened with a 68. … Jason Allred, whose tie for third at Riviera enabled him to get into the Honda Classic, opened with a 75. Allred had not played a regular PGA Tour event since 2008 until the Northern Trust Open.

Click here to listen to the announcement.

Oakville, Ont. – The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame is proud to announce Stephen Ames of Calgary has been elected as the 2014 inductee into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

Ames, a dual citizen of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago is four-time winner on the PGA Tour. With his induction in the player category, Ames will become the 74th honoured member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

“The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame seeks to recognize excellence as golfers, contributors and supporters of the game,” said Ian Clarke, Chair of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame Selection Committee. “Stephen Ames has excelled on the biggest stage in our sport and it is fitting that he will be recognized for his respective accomplishments.”

Ames’ induction ceremony into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in Calgary during the Shaw Charity Classic, a tournament he is a founding patron of.

“As a proud Canadian, I am truly humbled by this great honour,” said Stephen Ames. “The opportunity to join this exceptional company of names in front of my friends and family at home in Calgary is something that I will cherish for a long time.”

Stephen Ames, 49, enters the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame as a prominent professional player, having amassed four PGA Tour victories and over $19.5 million in career earnings.

Ames resides in Calgary and began playing professionally in 1987. He is past champion of the Trinidad and Tobago Open (1989) and won his first professional title on American soil at the Pensacola Open on the Ben Hogan Tour (now the Web.com Tour) in 1991.

Prior to playing on the PGA Tour, Ames spent five seasons competing on the European Tour where he captured the 1994 Open V33 Grand Lyon and the Benson & Hedges International Open in 1996. He qualified for the PGA Tour in 1997, earning exempt status for the 1998 season by finishing third at qualifying. Ames won his first PGA Tour title in 2004 at the Cialis Western Open, defeating Steve Lowery by two strokes.

In 2006, Ames captured one of the Tour’s marquee events, winning The Players Championship by six strokes over Retief Goosen. His victory at TPC Sawgrass was played against 48 of the top 50 players in the world and vaulted him at that time to No. 27 in the Official World Golf Rankings. Ames is also a two-time champion of the Children’s Miracle Network Classic (2007 & 2009). In major championship play he has finished inside the top-10 on six occasions. His best finish was a tie for fifth at The Open Championship in 1997.

In 2013, the Stephen Ames Foundation funded the inaugural CJGA Stephen Ames Junior Cup presented by RBC at the Country Club of the Hamptons in Calgary.  Since 2005, Ames has proudly hosted the Stephen Ames Cup, a Ryder Cup style tournament featuring a team of Canadian junior players versus Team Trinidad & Tobago.  In addition, the Stephen Ames Foundation provides funding for junior golf programs and other children’s initiatives in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.

Representing the start of an exciting and dramatic process in which thousands of golfers from around the world will pursue the title of America’s national champion, the United States Golf Association (USGA) has announced local qualifying sites for the 2014 U.S. Open Championship.

The U.S. Open will be contested at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2, in Village of Pinehurst, N.C., on June 12-15. Local qualifying, conducted over 18 holes at 111 sites in 42 states, will take place between May 2-19.

Players who advance out of local qualifying will compete in sectional qualifying, which will be conducted over 36 holes at 10 U.S. sites on June 2. For the 10th consecutive year, Japan and England will host international sectional qualifying, both scheduled for May 26.

Several local exemptions for the U.S. Open have been amended and will take effect in 2014.

The top 500 point leaders and ties from the Official World Golf Ranking (as of March 3) will be exempt. Any player in the OWGR’s top 500 (as of April 21) who has filed an entry prior to the deadline of 5 p.m. EDT on April 23, will also earn a local exemption. Only the top 150 point leaders were exempted in previous years. In addition, any player who has had multiple finishes in the top 400 of the year-ending OWGR in the last five calendar years (2009-2013) will be exempt from local qualifying.

In 2014, five clubs are hosting U.S. Open local qualifying for at least the 10th consecutive year. Illini Country Club, in Springfield, Ill., has held a U.S. Open local qualifier since the late 1940s, while Maketewah Country Club, in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been a site for more than four decades. Riverton (Wyo.) Country Club and Genoa Lakes Golf Club, in Genoa, Nev., have hosted local qualifying since the 1990s. Collindale Golf Course, in Fort Collins, Colo., has also hosted for at least a decade. Thirty-nine courses return as U.S. Open local qualifying sites from last year.

Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., the site of the 1958, 1977 and 2001 U.S. Opens, is hosting one of this year’s U.S. Open local qualifiers.

There are 16 local qualifying sites in the state of Florida, with the first of the scheduled qualifiers at The Club at Admirals Cove’s East Course in Jupiter on May 2. Fourteen local qualifiers are scheduled in California.

Ken Venturi (1964) and Orville Moody (1969) are the only players to win the U.S. Open after qualifying through both local and sectional play. Last year, 20 players advanced through local and sectional qualifying to the 156-player U.S. Open championship field at Merion Golf Club.

The U.S. Open will be held for the third time at Pinehurst No. 2. In 1999, Payne Stewart made an 18-foot par-saving putt on the final hole to edge Phil Mickelson by one stroke and win his second U.S. Open title. In 2005, Michael Campbell shot a final-round 69 to finish at even-par 280, two strokes ahead of Tiger Woods. To be eligible, a player must have a USGA Handicap Index or Golf Canada Handicap Factor not exceeding 1.4, or be a professional.

Online player registration for the 2014 U.S. Open begins the first week of March.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – The PGA Tour season began five months ago. The new year is two months old. And yet there’s something about the Honda Classic that makes Tiger Woods and a collection of stars feel as though it’s all about to get underway.

“I think once we get to Florida, I think we’re all thinking about our way to Augusta,” Woods said.

Six tournaments remaining before the Masters, the first major of the year, and this is now serious business. It shows in the strength of the field at PGA National, with seven of the top 10 players from the world ranking.

The last time Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott competed in the same tournament was the BMW Championship near Chicago last summer.

That’s how it was a generation ago, when some of golf’s top players either rested or played overseas early in the season, and then showed up in tropical conditions at Doral to start the official road to Augusta National.

Woods has plenty of work to do based on his early performance – a missed 54-hole cut at Torrey Pines in his lone PGA Tour start this year, followed by a dismal performance by his standards at the Dubai Desert Classic, where he tied for 41st.

He conceded that he spent most of his winter break working on his body instead of his golf. Since returning from overseas earlier this month, Woods said he has spent most of his time working on his short game.

Woods isn’t the only player coming off a substantial break.

Scott, the defending champion at Augusta, hasn’t competed since the Sony Open in Honolulu. He spent the following week on the Big Island, surfing and playing a few casual rounds with his buddies, then killed time on the couch or doing anything not related to golf until it was time to get back to work.

He plans to play three of the next four tournaments.

“After three weeks I kind of felt like I needed to start swinging again and started to get the itch, but I think I timed it pretty well because I’ve had a nice couple weeks of intense practice before getting here and a week of playing with some mates before that,” Scott said. “I feel like I’ve had a nice preparation, but this is a very tough test, and it’s probably not the ideal one to float back in off after an extended break.”

PGA National looks to have as much blue (water) as green (grass), and the course is converted into a par 70 at 7,140 yards for the Honda Classic. Michael Thompson won last year at 9-under 271.

It wouldn’t seem to favor Mickelson, who has not played PGA National since he was an amateur.

Mickelson missed the last two weeks because his kids were on spring break, spending some of that time skiing and some of that playing golf. He did not want to fly out from California for one tournament next week at Doral, so he added the Honda Classic.

“The greens are really immaculate,” Mickelson said. “If you get hot with a putter, you can make a lot of putts. But I do like the golf course. I’ve always liked Nicklaus-designed golf courses. I know this course he renovated or redesigned years ago, and it’s a wonderful test of golf, and I think that’s a real credit as to why such a strong field continues to come here.”

This is only the third time Woods has played the Honda Classic as a pro. He rallied with a 62 in the final round in 2012 to finish behind McIlroy, and then struggled off the tee – particularly on the sixth hole – a year ago when he tied for 37th.

McIlroy has his own set of memories from PGA National, not all of them good. Even though he won in 2012 to become No. 1 in the world for the first time, he followed that by playing 26 holes last year before walking off the course with his game in disrepair and his business affairs not much better.

McIlroy said it was a mistake to quit, something he won’t ever do again. But the 24-year-old from Northern Ireland is in a better frame of mind this year. He is comfortable with his equipment. He’s engaged. He has settled into his own management (though he still is going through a legal battle with his old firm). And he is playing like the guy everyone expected to be the biggest threat to Woods.

“I’m in a better place,” McIlroy said. “And I feel like when my game is in a good place, everything else can sort of fall in line with that. It makes me feel more comfortable about everything.”

IRVINE, Calif. – Greg McLaughlin is leaving as head of the Tiger Woods Foundation after 14 years to join the PGA Tour.

McLaughlin was the tournament director of the Nissan Open at Riviera when he offered Woods an exemption into his first PGA Tour event at age 16. He later ran the Honda Classic and Western Open.

McLaughlin has been president and CEO of the Tiger Woods Foundation since 2000.

Woods says he is thankful for the leadership from McLaughlin. During his tenure, seven Tiger Woods Learning Centers were created. McLaughlin also ran three tournaments – the AT&T National, the Deutsche Bank Championship and the World Challenge.

McLaughlin said in a statement that he was taking an executive leadership position with the tour, but he will remain involved with the foundation.

MARANA, Ariz. – Jason Day never stopped believing he would win the Match Play Championship, even in the midst of so many shots by Victor Dubuisson that simply defied belief.

With his ball at the base of a cactus, Dubuisson took an all-or-nothing swing though the sharp needles and a TV cable and incredibly hit it to 4 feet to save par. Seemingly out of it on the next playoff hole, the 23-year-old Frenchman somehow whacked a wedge through a desert bush and rocks and onto the green for another par.

Day finally ended the madness Sunday on the 23rd hole with a pitch to 4 feet on No. 15 for birdie.

It was the first time the championship match went overtime since the inaugural year in 1999 at La Costa, when Jeff Maggert chipped on the second extra hole of a 36-hole final.

Day, with his first World Golf Championship, walked away with his second PGA Tour title that will take the Australian to No. 4 in the world.

This tournament might better be remembered for Dubuisson’s magical escapes.

Two holes down with two holes to play, Dubuisson rapped in a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole and then took advantage of a rare lapse by Day, who bogeyed the 18th hole with a three-putt from 50 feet on the upper tier. The Frenchman saved par from the bunker to force extra holes.

It looked as if it would be over quickly.

From the first fairway, Dubuisson went so far long that bounced hard off the back of the green and into the desert, the ball nestled at the base of a cholla. He stepped up to the ball and, with nothing to lose, swung away. The club got caught on a TV cable, and the ball scooted up the slope of 3-inch grass and onto the green.

And it came with an encore.

On the next extra hole, the par-5 ninth, Dubuisson tugged his shot left of the green, left of the bleachers and into a desert bush surrounded by rocks. He took another crack at it, and the shot came out perfectly through thick grass and onto the green.

After matching bogeys and pars on the next two holes – this time from the green grass – the match ended on the 333-yard 15th hole when Dubuisson’s drive strayed too far right into side of a hill.

In the morning semifinals, Day beat Rickie Fowler 3 and 2, and Dubuisson topped Ernie Els 1 up. Fowler beat Els in 19 holes in the third-place match.

MARANA, Ariz. – Jason Day of Australia and Victor Dubuisson of France reached the 18-hole final of the Match Play Championship on Sunday.

Day, a semifinalist last year, led from the start in a 3-and-2 victory over Rickie Fowler.

Dubuisson became the fourth player to reach the championship match on his debut in the 15 years after this World Golf Championship began in 1999. He had to take down Ernie Els in the most compelling match of the morning on Dove Mountain.

Els, trying to reach the final for the first time, went 3 up through four holes and was on the verge of stretching his lead until the 23-year-old Frenchman halved the hole with a tough par putt at No. 7. Dubuisson won four of the next five holes to take the lead, only for the 44-year-old Els to battle back.

Els made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th to square the match, and they headed to the 18th hole. Dubuisson hit to the back fringe, while Els came up short with a 6-iron into the breeze and found a bunker. He blasted out to just outside 12 feet, and narrowly missed the par putt to extend the match.

Dubuisson said he didn’t sleep well Saturday night and didn’t feel well when he arrived at the golf course, perhaps because “I realized I was in the semifinal of the World Golf Championship against Ernie Els.”

“I’m a big fan of Ernie, so I have always been watching him winning majors,” he said. “I knew I had to play my best golf. It’s what I did.”

Dubuisson is the first player since Geoff Ogilvy in 2006 to reach the final match in his first time playing this event. Ogilvy went on to win the title.

It was a big blow to Els, who badly pulled an 8-iron far left of the flag on the 17th, losing a chance to put pressure on Dubuisson, and then came up short on the 18th.

“It’s tough to take,” said the four-time major champion.

Day won the opening hole with a birdie and never looked back, though Fowler didn’t give in.

Day was 3 up through 11 holes when he missed a 6-foot par putt on the 12th and Fowler made birdie on the 13th to cut the deficit to one hole. The turning point came at the 15th, when Fowler missed far enough left with his drive that he had no shot at getting close. He hit a flop shot strong that went over the green, hit another strong pitch and missed the par putt.

Fowler had a chance to go 1 down on the 16th with a tee shot into 6 feet. But he missed the birdie putt, and then missed the 4-footer coming back for par to end the match.

“The start of the season, that’s all I’m trying to do is win,” said Day, with only one PGA Tour victory in his career. “I felt like I had a really good chance at maybe having a shot at winning this week and I’m definitely in the final now and I’m really looking for to it.”

MARANA, Ariz. –  The most fickle part of the Match Play Championship for Louis Oosthuizen was his nagging back injury.

His luck ran out Saturday when he felt pain in his back while warming up on the range. When he first tried to hit a draw on the par-5 second hole, it got even worse. And one point, he was on his back on the 13th tee as his trainer tried to stretch him out.

“It’s a bit painful that it always happens when I’m playing well,” Oosthuizen said after losing on the 17th hole to Jason Day.

He was playing well enough that Oosthuizen required only 47 holes to reach the quarterfinals, the fewest of anyone. But it was a battle from the start, especially against a player like Day who has reached the semifinals the last two years.

Oosthuizen pulled off an unlikely birdie on the second hole to square the match, and he went ahead on the third with a 25-foot birdie putt. Day was able to at least try to drive the par-4 fourth green to set up a birdie, while Oosthuizen chose to lay back. Day won the hole and never trailed again.

“If I can commit myself to hit the shot, it’s not that bad,” Oosthuizen said. “But I can’t commit. My body is restricting me to go through the shot.”

Oosthuizen needs to get his back sorted out. He’s been dealing with it since last summer. Some weeks it feels good, other weeks not so much. He said it most affects him when he plays a long stretch of golf.

And this has been a long week.

“I’m glad to not be playing tomorrow,” he said with a smile. “I don’t want to be the first guy to withdraw from the finals or semifinals.”

Oosthuizen is scheduled to play the Honda Classic next week ahead of the next World Golf Championship at Doral. He said he would see how he feels in a couple of days, and might end up dropping Honda and adding the week after Doral at Innisbrook.

MENTAL EXAM: Jordan Spieth lost his match to Ernie Els. He also lost his cool.

It’s the one area of Spieth’s game that he’s still trying to master as he enters his second full year on tour. When the golf isn’t going well, Spieth shows it.

Els noticed.

“I could almost sense the frustration in Jordan today that he wasn’t quite playing the way he did yesterday,” Els said. “And I was kind of playing on that a little bit, just making sure if I was missing a shot, that I made sure that I got it up-and-down to keep kind of him at bay, or keep him frustrated.”

Spieth described himself as a “little mental midget out there,” as he constantly turned toward caddie Michael Greller.

“Actually kind of embarrassing looking back,” he said. “I was dropping clubs and just whining to Michael, and you just can’t do that. In match play, you’ve got to keep your cool. Any time you show that, it’s a weakness, and Ernie can take advantage of it.”

And he did.

A LONG WALK: Rickie Fowler might have logged more miles than anyone this week, and not just because he has played 71 holes to reach the semifinals.

Fowler has been taking hikes up the mountain behind The Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain with his mother and sister, a peaceful way to end a day and a great place to watch the sunset over the high desert north of Tucson.

“The first night I went on my own, which was kind of fun,” Fowler said after his 1-up win over Jim Furyk. “My mom and sister came in on Tuesday, so made them go with me. And I guess we’re going to continue that. It’s been working. I’ll be going on a hike a little later this afternoon and go hang out up there and just relax and watch the sunset and go down and have some dinner at the hotel.”

Fowler said it’s about a 25-minute hike. Once they get to the top, they send pictures and used FaceTime with friends.

“It’s just a fun way to relax and enjoy the afternoon,” he said.

MIC CHECK: Jordan Spieth had to aim away from the hole from a bunker on the par-5 second. The idea was to splash out with some side spin, catch the fringe and have the ball trickle toward the hole.

It worked except for one tiny detail _ he forgot to have the TV microphone removed.

The ball struck the base of the microphone and stayed there. Spieth could only get up-and-down for par, and Els two-putted for birdie to win the hole.

A WORLD AFFAIR: For only the third time in 16 years of the Match Play Championship, the semifinalists are from four continents _ Australia (Jason Day), Africa (Ernie Els), Europe (Victor Dubuisson) and the United States (Rickie Fowler).

Those four continents also were involved in 2007 (Geoff Ogilvy, Trevor Immelman, Henrik Stenson and Chad Campbell).

The first time it happened was in 2001 in Melbourne, when the semifinalists were from the United States (Steve Stricker), Africa (Els), Europe (Pierre Fulke) and Japan (Toru Taniguchi).

DIVOTS: At 44, Ernie Els is the oldest player to reach the semifinals in the Match Play Championship. The oldest winner was Kevin Sutherland, who was 37 when he won in 2002. … Victor Dubuisson is the 11th player to reach the semifinals in his Match Play debut. That includes the four semifinalists from the inaugural year in 1999. Geoff Ogilvy and Jeff Maggert are the only players to win in their first year. … Dubuisson has played 67 holes this week, the fewest of the four players remaining.

Quarterfinal Results & Semifinal Match-ups: