Johnson was two down with two to play at Austin Country Club, but the Wworld No.1 and Masters champion made an eagle on the par-5 16th and birdied the 17th to leave both players with one and a half points from two matches in group one.

"He holed putts when he had to hole putts," a disappointed MacIntyre said.

"He does that to win numerous majors. I'm young. I've got plenty of time ahead of me."

Thomas came into the event on the back of winning The Players Championship, but lost 3 & 2 to Matt Kuchar on day one and 2 & 1 to defending champion Kevin Kisner on Thursday.

Kuchar's narrow victory over former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen means group two will be settled by Friday's match between Kuchar and Kisner, a repeat of the 2019 final won by the latter.

Rory McIlroy recovered from his opening thrashing at the hands of Ian Poulter with a 4 & 3 victory over Lanto Griffin.

Australian Cameron Smith was up against Poulter in his second match after opening with a 1 up win over Griffin.

Smith will face McIlroy in his final round-robin match, a must-win contest for both if they are to advance to the last 16.

Matt Fitzpatrick kept his hopes of reaching the knockout stages alive with a 5 & 4 win over Canada's Corey Conners.

Jordan Spieth finished double-bogey, bogey to halve the other match in group 15 against Matthew Wolff.

Norway's Viktor Hovland made an early exit after suffering a 4 & 2 defeat to Bernd Wiesberger, but Bryson DeChambeau bounced back from his opening loss to Antoine Rozner.

DeChambeau's drive on the 10th was measured at just 46 yards after hitting a tree just in front of the tee, but the US Open champion went on to secure a 2 & 1 win in group five.

Tommy Fleetwood holds the upper hand in that group after beating Rozner 4 & 3 and he takes on DeChambeau on Friday.

- Phil Casey, PAA