Saturday 26 March 2016 18:14, UK
Jordan Spieth crashed out of the WGC-Dell Match Play after he suffered a 4&2 defeat to Louis Oosthuizen in their last-16 clash in Texas.
Spieth won all of his group stage matches by convincing margins over the first three days, but he was never ahead against Oosthuizen and paid the price for a number of loose shots in a disappointing performance.
The world No 1 gifted away the fourth hole when he blocked his tee shot almost 20 yards right and failed to get and and down, and he also missed the green at the short seventh and bogeyed after Oosthuizen had knocked a pure iron to five feet.
Spieth pulled one back at the next when Oosthuizen pulled his drive into rough and was unable to reach the green in two, but the South African restored his two-up lead at the next when Spieth blocked his tee shot into a fairway bunker and ran up another bogey.
Oosthuizen then made a mess of the 10th, and a bogey-four was good enough to win the 11th after both players put their tee-shots into water to the right of the green, although the South African almost holed his 115-yard third from the drop zone.
The 2010 Open champion rolled in a six-foot birdie putt to win the long 12th, and he went four up at the next when he rolled in a superb 20-footer for another birdie.
Spieth reduced the deficit at 14 with his fourth birdie of the day, but that merely delayed the inevitable as he carved his second into rough at the 16th and conceded when his 20-foot birdie attempt slid past the cup.
"I had great ball control the last three days and played very, very solid rounds, but I got to the range this morning and I was hitting slices with my irons, which is bizarre," said a frustrated Spieth afterwards. "I tried to fix it on the range, but I didn't know what was up.
"I'd swing what felt like normal and I'd look up and the ball was going right. I just tried to compensate on the golf course and got away with it the first couple of holes, and then it got the better of me.
"I'm not really sure what happened, it was just an off day. I'd like my off days to be a little more consistent. But I was still maybe 10 under for these four rounds even with a very poor day today. So if I look at it that way, we've got some momentum this week that we didn't have before that we can carry through to Houston and into the Masters."
Oosthuizen takes on Dustin Johnson for a place in the semi-finals after the big-hitting American produced a strong back-nine charge to earn a 3&2 win over Patrick Reed.
The match was all-square after 10 holes before Johnson converted from four feet for birdie at the 11th and he went two up with a superb second to 10 feet at the 12th which set up a winning eagle.
The 13th was halved in birdies, but Johnson added another at 14 following a precision 152-yard approach to two feet, and he matched Reed's birdie at the long 16th to close out the victory.
