AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 21: Peter Uihlein of the United States reacts during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 21, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
Peter Uihlein has played The Masters once before courtesy of winning the 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship on his 21st birthday but is currently on the outside looking in on the year’s first major at Augusta National.

He’s running out of time to make a second trip up Magnola Lane but it won’t surprise the PGA Tour rookie’s Dubai-based coach Justin Parsons if Uihlein punches his ticket in the next fortnight. The now 28-year-old certainly made an encouraging start to his late bid for a tilt at the green jacket with a 2&1 upset of Rory McIlroy, fresh from his sensational Arnold Palmer Invitational win, on the opening day of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship at Austin Country Club on Wednesday.

“Obviously Pete’s game is in good shape,” said Parsons, the Director of Instruction at the Els Dubai-based Butch Harmon School of Golf, of Uihlein who had been dormie five.

Related: Peter Uihlein: The European Tour wasn’t a “stepping stone” to the PGA Tour

“The new pressures of being a rookie on the PGA Tour have probably kept him a little more conservative so it was great to see him go out in the match play last night and against Rory and be a little more aggressive and show people the type of game he has.

“Understandably maybe Rory wasn’t just at his sharpest but he threw a few birdies at him near the end and Pete showed he is in good command of both his game and his mental game as well.”

Uihlein has fallen from a world ranking of 52 at the end of 2017 to 63rd entering the third WGC-event of the season and will need more magic in Texas and at next week’s Houston Open to sneak inside the top-50 to punch his ticket to Augusta.

Related: Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson among big names to struggle on first day at WGC-Match Play

“It was a great confidence boost for Pete,” said Parsons who stayed up to 2am to watch Uihlein shake hands with McIlroy on the 17th. “I think the big thing for him is once he secures his playing rights for 2019 he’ll grow in confidence through the rest of the season.

“He played well in Houston last year [T-23 at -5,  15 strokes behind winner Russell Henley] so I’m looking forward to going out there on Sunday to see him. He tends to play well in the middle of the summer so I expect him to havg a good summer going forward and a couple of good weeks and he might get the chance to play in Augusta, but he’s not in just yet.”

Related: Five minutes with Peter Uihlein

Uihlein will look to go 2-0 in group 6 when he faces Brian Harman, who halved his opening match with Jhonattan Vegas on Wednesday, in tonight’s second round from 12.15pm (9.15pm UAE time). He’ll undoubtedly take a lot of confidence into the match after nailing McIlroy’s scalp

“I made him earn it at least. I made the score line a little more respectable,” said McIlroy who did well not to be beaten on the 15th.

“I just came away a little flat. I didn’t really necessarily play badly. He played pretty well. It was a few under through 9, and got down early and he didn’t make a bogey all day. So it was — it was hard to sort of claw my way back.”

For the record, Uihlein missed the cut in his Masters debut as an amateur.

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TV Coverage
OSN Sports 3 HD will carry live coverage on Thursday and Friday from 10pm UAE time. They’ll also carry coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 6pm UAE.

Thursday Tee Times (NOTE: The UAE is nine hours ahead of the stated Texas tee times):
Group 13
9:30 a.m. (6.30pm UAE time)  — Alex Noren (1-0) vs. Thomas Pieters (0-1)
9:41 a.m. — Tony Finau (1-0) vs. Kevin Na (0-1)

Group 4
9:52 a.m. — Jordan Spieth (1-0) vs. HaoTong Li (0-1)
10:03 a.m. — Patrick Reed (1-0) vs. Charl Schwartzel (0-1)

Group 9
10:14 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood (0-1) vs. Kevin Chappell (1-0)
10:25 a.m. — Daniel Berger (0-1) vs. Ian Poulter (1-0)

Group 8
10:36 a.m. — Jason Day (1-0) vs. Jason Dufner (0-1)
10:47 a.m. — Louis Oosthuizen (1-0) vs. James Hahn (0-1)

Group 16
10:58 a.m. — Matt Kuchar (0-0-1) vs. Yuta Ikeda (1-0)
11:09 a.m. — Ross Fisher (0-1) vs. Zach Johnson (0-0-1)

Group 1
11:20 a.m. — Dustin Johnson (0-1) vs. Adam Hadwin (0-0-1)
11:31 a.m. — Kevin Kisner (1-0) vs. Bernd Wiesberger (1-0)

Group 11
11:42 a.m. — Marc Leishman (0-1) vs. Bubba Watson (1-0)
11:53 a.m. — Branden Grace (0-1) vs. Julian Suri (1-0)

Group 6
12:04 p.m. — Rory McIlroy (0-1) vs. Jhonattan Vegas (44)
12:15 p.m. — Brian Harman (18) vs. Peter Uihlein (1-0)

Group 14
12:26 p.m. — Phil Mickelson (14) vs. Satoshi Kodaira (40)
12:37 p.m. — Rafa Cabrera Bello (17) vs. Charles Howell III (59)

Group 3
12:48 p.m. — Jon Rahm (0-0-1) vs. Chez Reavie (0-1)
12:59 p.m. — Kiradech Aphibarnrat (1-0) vs. Keegan Bradley (0-0-1)

Group 10
1:10 p.m. — Paul Casey (10) vs. Kyle Stanley (45)
1:21 p.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick (31) vs. Russell Henley (51)

Group 7
1:32 p.m. — Sergio Garcia (7) vs. Dylan Frittelli (41)
1:43 p.m. — Xander Schauffele (20) vs. Shubhankar Sharma (62)

Group 15
1:54 p.m. — Pat Perez (0-0-1) vs. Webb Simpson (0-0-1)
2:05 p.m. — Gary Woodland (0-0-1) vs. Si Woo Kim (0-0-1)

Group 2
2:16 p.m. — Justin Thomas (1-0) vs. Patton Kizzire (0-1)
2:27 p.m. — Francesco Molinari (1-0) vs. Luke List (0-1)

Group 12
2:38 p.m. — Tyrrell Hatton (1-0) vs. Brendan Steele (1-0)
2:49 p.m. — Charley Hoffman (0-1) vs. Alexander Levy (0-1)

Group 5
3 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama (1-0) vs. Cameron Smith (1-0)
3:11 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay (0-1) vs. Yusaku Miyazato (0-1)