Rory McIlroy – well and truly dusted by his old Ryder Cup sparring partner Ian Poulter – wasn't alone in licking his wounds after a first day of the round-robin group phase of the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay at Austin Country Club in Texas witnessed the type of upsets that leave nowhere to hide.
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, too, was left to work the scientific conundrum of how he was outdone by Frenchman Antoine Rozner, while world number two Justin Thomas, just a fortnight after lifting the Players trophy, was usurped by Matt Kuchar who, up to now, has been a pale shadow of his self in a season where he has missed more cuts than he made.
Such upsets are the beauty of the match play format, although the round-robin nature ensure that even those who lost their opening day matches retained some hope, however slim, of turning matters around with two further matches before the final 16 of 64 are whittled down.
The two Irishmen in the limited, megabucks field were left reflecting on losses: McIlroy's by a stunning 6 and 5 at the hands of Poulter, the man who carries the Postman moniker from his Ryder Cup endeavours where he always delivers; Lowry's by a 4 and 2 margin, where his conqueror Ryan Palmer utilised a hot putter to gain and keep the upper hand.
“I kind of like the shit or bust attitude, to be honest. It gets the adrenaline going, the ticker starts going and you got to pony up and hit shots, right?” said Poulter of the mindset used to overcome McIlroy. “This is a golf course where you’re going to make mistakes, hazards everywhere, tricky pin positions. It was just try [get ahead] and keep the foot down.”.
In truth, for all of Poulter’s brilliance, and it included a magnificent approach to the Par 5 12th from 266 yards to five feet to set up an eagle putt, which would in fact be conceded by his opponent, his rather straightforward route to victory was aided and abetted by McIlroy, who continued to be out-of-sorts with his game.
From an early stage of the Group 11 contest, McIlroy – using a mallet putter with a thick grip in his latest attempt to improve his putting – was fighting to contain matters. A three-putt from 18 feet on the fourth was followed by the strange sight of a wild drive on the fifth hitting a cart path and bouncing over a boundary wall to finish up in the swimming pool of a house adjacent to the course.
Poulter was two-up through nine and clinically finished the task and was pumping fists with McIlroy on the 13th, where the Northern Irishman’s body language – removing his cap to scratch his head after chipping from behind the green and into the water hazard – only served to illustrate his own angst with the state of his game. McIlroy would need to beat both Lanto Griffin and Cameron Smith in his remaining two matches and require a slip-up from Poulter to keep any hopes of advancing alive.
For Lowry, his match with Palmer was tight until the American sank an audacious 48-footer for birdie to win the ninth and turn one-up. But Palmer’s putter remained hot, and another long birdie putt – this time from 40 feet on the 12th – increased his lead and he closed the deal with further birdies on the 13th and 16th for a 4 and 2 winning margin. Lowry’s remaining group matches will see him face Jon Rahm and Sebastian Munoz.
Arguably the biggest upset came with Rozner outdueling DeChambeau, although the Parisian admitted that any conversation between the two was rather limited. To one question in fact, when Rozner asked DeChambeau where he lived.
If anything, the lack of dialogue allowed Rozner – recent winner of the Qatar Masters and competing in the tournament for the first time – to get on with his own game. “I’m not focusing on what the other guy is doing. If he’s making a birdie, great, he’s winning the hole, that’s good. But I’m just focusing on what I have to do,” said the Frenchman
First-round results
(USA unless stated)
Ian Poulter (Eng) bt Rory McIlroy (N Irl) 6&5
Cameron Smith (Aus) bt Lanto Griffin 1up
Xander Schauffele halved with Andy Sullivan (Eng)
Daniel Berger bt Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 6&4
Scottie Scheffler bt Jason Day (Aus) 2up
Harris English bt Brendon Todd 1up
Jon Rahm (Esp) bt Sebastian Munoz (Col) 1up
Ryan Palmer bt Shane Lowry (Irl) 4&2
Patrick Cantlay bt Brian Harman 1up
Carlos Ortiz (Mex) bt Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 4&3
Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) bt Tony Finau 6&5
Patrick Reed halved with Bubba Watson
Joaquin Niemann (Chi) halved with Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa)
Jordan Spieth bt Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 3&1
Matthew Wolff bt Corey Conners (Can) 3&1
Matt Kuchar bt Justin Thomas 3&2
Kevin Kisner bt Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 2&1
Jason Kokrak bt Will Zalatoris 1up
Antoine Rozner (Fra) bt Bryson DeChambeau 2up
Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) halved with Si Woo Kim (Kor)
Kevin Streelman bt Viktor Hovland (Nor) 4&2
Abraham Ancer (Mex) bt Bernd Wiesberger 3&2
Webb Simpson bt Talor Gooch 6&5
Collin Morikawa halved with JT Poston
Billy Horschel bt Max Homa 1up
Mackenzie Hughes (Can) bt Paul Casey (Eng) 3&2
Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) halved with Matt Wallace (Eng)
Sergio Garcia (Esp) bt Lee Westwood (Eng) 4&3
Sung Jae Im (Kor) bt Russell Henley 1up
Victor Perez (Fra) bt Marc Leishman (Aus) 2&1
Dustin Johnson bt Adam Long 2up
Robert MacIntyre (Sco) bt Kevin Na 2&1
