Darren Carroll/Getty Images
AUSTIN, Tex. — Rory McIlroy never trailed in his first three matches at Austin Country Club, advancing to the round of 16 at the World Golf Championships match-play event without having to play the 17th or 18th holes. He was looking to extend his front-running ways in an elimination match against Tiger Woods, whose superlative career has been a sucker pin that McIlroy recently decided to stop taking dogged aim at.
McIlroy, 29, has 15 PGA Tour titles, including four majors, which makes him the leader of the men’s 20-something set but far behind a pre-30-year-old Woods’s pace of 46 PGA Tour titles, including 10 majors.