2021 WGC-Dell Match Play scores, results, bracket: Dustin Johnson rallies late to stay alive in tournament

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The second day of the WGC-Dell Match play on Thursday failed to live up to the wild ups and downs of the first day on Wednesday, but there was plenty to take in, starting with an incredible finale by the No. 1 player in the world, Dustin Johnson.

We'll get to D.J.'s match against Scotland's finest here in a bit, but first let's look at who's definitely going home following Friday's final round of pool play. Justin Thomas is the biggest star of the group that's been mathematically eliminated as he took a loss from Kevin Kisner (see below) following his Day 1 loss to Matt Kuchar. It was a tough scene for J.T., who made just 37 feet of putts in 17 holes today (which is nearly impossible). He wasn't the only one, though. No. 13 Vitkor Hovland -- who has won just three of 32 hole is also out. So are Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau and the club-tossing Tyrrell Hatton.

Good pre-tourney picks but among those already mathematically eliminated by Thursday night:

JT
Morikawa
Hovland
Hatton
Finau
Zalatoris
Oosty
Hideki
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) March 25, 2021

Though those players are out, several are still alive, but some will need some help on Day 3. Let's look at some of the key matches from Thursday and scores for all 16 groups after Day 2 of the WGC-Dell Match Play and look to see what some of the top players need to do to advance to the Round of 16.

Dustin Johnson ties Robert MacIntyre: D.J. actually trailed MacIntyre by two holes standing on the 16th tee box but made an eagle and birdie over the last three to save the match and split a point. Incredibly, D.J. led the field in putting on Thursday, and he needed to as a 17-footer for birdie kept him alive at the 17th hole before he split the last with a par to halve the match. Johnson now mostly controls his own destiny against Kevin Na on Friday as a win will guarantee him at least a sudden-death playoff with MacIntyre, who will face Adam Long in the other Group 1 match.

Patrick Cantlay 1UP over Carlos Ortiz: Cantlay has been the player of the tournament thus far even if you couldn't tell it from his pair of 1UP wins. He made six birdies and an eagle on Wednesday in his win over Brian Harman and seven more birdies on Thursday in his narrow victory over Ortiz. Absolutely lights out stuff from the No. 10 player in the world right now as he's the No. 1 player in this field from tee to green thus far. He still has to win his match on Friday against Hideki Matsuyama to secure a trip to the Round of 16, but there are much worse picks to win the whole thing right now than Cantlay at 9-1.

Jordan Spieth ties Matthew Wolff: This was a not great outcome for Spieth, who has yet to trail a single hole at this event. He was 2UP with two holes to play and made an absolute horror show of both of them when par at either likely would have won him the match. Now he may need to win on Friday just to get into a sudden-death playoff with Wolff to get out of the pool play. Both are 1-0-1 right now, and Wolff will face Matt Fitzpatrick while Spieth will go against Corey Conners. The good news for Spieth is that this was the 21st time in his last 23 measured rounds that he's gained strokes on approach shots. He remains flushing with Augusta two weeks from away.

Kevin Kisner 2UP over Justin Thomas: Kisner, who nobody picked, will play Matt Kuchar, who even less picked, as Justin Thomas and Louis Oosthuizen were eliminated from this pool on Thursday. Kisner got J.T. the day after he got Oosthuizen, but he did not play all that well in the process. Losing a stroke to the field on the day, he got a timely bad round from J.T. to push him into a win-and-advance match with Kuchar. Still, it's undeniable that he's doing something right at this event.

Kevin Kisner: 8th straight match won at @DellMatchPlay dating back to his win in 2019.

Tournament record is 13 in a row by Tiger Woods from 2003-05.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) March 25, 2021

Here's a look at all the scores from Thursday's Day 2 matches.