WGC-Dell Match Play 2017: Thursday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Thursday marked the second day of action at the 2017 WGC-Dell Match Play Championship with the top 64 players in the world vying for bragging rights.As was the case during the opening day, there were 32 matches on the course at the Austin Country Club. The field of 64 is made up of 16 groups featuring four players going head-to-head over the first three days, with the winner of each group moving to a single-elimination, tournament-style bracket over the weekend.Here's how each of the 32 matches played out Thursday along with highlights from the biggest stories of the round.The big story happened first thing this morning when Jason Day withdrew from the tournament before teeing off in his match against Lee Westwood.Per ESPN's Jason Sobel, Day was emotional when he publicly announced his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year."It's really hard to even comprehend being on the golf course right now," Day said. "It's been really hard to play golf lately. It's been very, very emotional, as you can tell. I've already gone through it once with my dad. And I know how it feels."Day's performance has been all over the place this season. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and has just one top-10 finish in five events. It's been an uneven year after he won three tournaments and finished in the top 10 in three of the four major tournaments last season.The biggest upset of the day saw Hideki Matsuyama taken down by Ross Fisher, 2 and 1, with this putt on the 17th hole, via the PGA Tour:It's been a slow start in match play for the fourth-seeded Matsuyama, who halved his opening match on Wednesday against Jim Furyk.Matsuyama is the only player in his group, which also includes Louis Oosthuizen as the fourth member, without a victory in two matches. Furyk has the inside track on coming out of the group with a 1-0-1 mark, though he will have to get by Fisher to do so.One player who hasn't had any issues living up to expectations is Dustin Johnson. The No. 1 seed and top-ranked player in the world is off to a red-hot start, cruising to a 5 and 3 win over Webb Simpson yesterday and 3 and 2 win over Martin Kaymer today.Per ESPN Stats & Info, Johnson has come out of the gate in both his matches by putting pressure on the opposition:Having won his previous two PGA Tour events, Johnson is firing on all cylinders and looks poised to be the player to beat heading into The Masters in two weeks.The most dominant win of the day, at least by score, was Phil Mickelson knocking off Daniel Berger 5 and 4. Lefty was two up after the first two holes after Berger shot a combined three-over par, and things would only snowball from there.Per Rex Hoggard of the Golf Channel, Mickelson is making a habit of these quick trips to the clubhouse:Mickelson is still looking for that one big breakthrough event this year. He's had moments in which it appeared things were falling into place, notably posting a solid seventh-place finish at the WGC-Mexico Championships three weeks ago, but his last win was at the 2013 British Open.Jordan Spieth, the third member of the marquee American trio, was a little more tactful in his victory over Yuta Ikeda. Spieth didn't take the lead for good until the fifth hole thanks to Ikeda's bogey and increased his margin on the following hole thanks to a bogey.The homecoming for Spieth was not always a warm one due to the harsh winds on the course, which he addressed after the round, via the PGA Tour:After taking a defeat Wednesday against Hideto Tanihara, Spieth needed to bounce back if he hopes to keep playing this weekend. He took care of his first task and moves on Friday to Ryan Moore but will need help from Ikeda to advance.Match play often adds drama to the proceedings on a golf course because it changes the strategy, and one bad hole doesn't immediately knock someone out of contention. Today's poor showing can morph into tomorrow's rebound effort.With one more day of round-robin play to go, the stage is set for a dramatic finish before the quarterfinals begin Saturday.
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