The WGC-Dell Match Play has always been rife with all kinds of upsets over the first few days of play, but they are almost always still jarring because you never know who the next top-ranked victim is going to be. On Wednesday at Austin Country Club, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau -- all top-12 seeds -- fell in the first of three pool-play matches at the second WGC event of the year. Only six of the top 16 seeds won their matches outright on Wednesday.
Not all Day 1 losers are completely out of the tournament -- Kevin Kisner lost his first match in 2019 and went on to win the entire thing -- but 79% of players who have advanced at this event since it moved to pool play have won their first matchup, according to Justin Ray.
Let's look at some of the key matches from Wednesday and scores for all 16 groups after Day 1 of the WGC-Dell Match Play.
Ian Poulter 6&5 over Rory McIlroy: This one was tough to watch at times as McIlroy continues to struggle from tee to green, while Poulter continues to hit everything he lays eyes on in any match play event anywhere in the world. McIlroy finished outside the top 50 in every strokes-gained category, hit one ball in a resident's pool and Poulter lit him up at the end with birdie or eagle at three of the last five holes. With the Masters starting two weeks from tomorrow, there's some real work to do for McIlroy to be ready to roll in his latest attempt at the career grand slam.
Matt Kuchar 3&2 over Justin Thomas: J.T. did not play all that poorly coming off his Players Championship win two weeks ago, but Kuchar made everything he looked at, didn't make a bogey and Thomas' iron play was not what it was on the weekend at TPC Sawgrass (or anywhere close to that). He has some time to bounce back, though, with Kevin Kisner and Louis Oosthuizen on deck for both players and Kuchar unlikely to beat both of them.
Jordan Spieth 3&1 over Matt Fitzpatrick: It was about what you would expect from Spieth, who at one point drove his ball onto the wrong green while Patrick Cantlay was trying to hole a putt. Here's the thing, though, and this has been true for two straight months -- Spieth is flushing his irons again. He didn't make a putt over 9 feet, and he didn't need to because he nearly led the field in strokes gained on approach shots. He's going to be a real problem at the Masters.
Antoine Rozner 2UP over Bryson DeChambeau: Who? The No. 64 player in the world squeezed into the event by winning the Qatar Masters a few weeks ago, and then squeezed out the biggest attraction in the game today. DeChambeau made him earn it at the very end, but he did not hit the ball very well and made just two birdies to Rozner's five (including one at the last). The Frenchman is a relative unknown who has been ranked inside the top 100 in the world for all of about two months. However, like Lucas Bjerregaard a few years ago, he's now set himself up with a chance to advance out of his pool (he's the only one with a win) and start sniffing around the 2021 European Ryder Cup team.
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Day 1 final results
Group 1
Dustin Johnson 2UP over Adam Long
Robert MacIntyre 2&1 over Kevin Na
Group 2
Matt Kuchar 3&2 over Justin Thomas
Kevin Kisner 2&1 over Louis Oosthuizen
Group 3
Jon Rahm 1UP over Sebastian Munoz
Ryan Palmer 4&2 over Shane Lowry
Group 4
Collin Morikawa tied J.T. Poston
Billy Horschel 1UP over Max Homa
Group 5
Antoine Rozner 2UP over Bryson DeChambeau
Tommy Fleetwood tied Si Woo Kim
Group 6
Xander Schauffele tied Andy Sullivan
Scottie Scheffler 2UP over Jason Day
Group 7
Patrick Reed tied Bubba Watson
Joaquin Niemann tied Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Group 8
Tyrrell Hatton tied Matt Wallace
Sergio Garcia 4&3 over Lee Westwood
Group 9
Webb Simpson 6&5 over Talor Gooch
Mackenzie Hughes 3&2 over Paul Casey
Group 10
Patrick Cantlay 1UP over Brian Harman
Carlos Ortiz 4&3 over Hideki Matsuyama
Group 11
Ian Poulter 6&5 over Rory McIlroy
Cameron Smith 1UP over Lanto Griffin
Group 12
Dylan Frittelli 6&5 over Tony Finau
Jason Kokrak 1UP over Will Zalatoris
Group 13
Kevin Streelman 4&2 over Viktor Hovland
Abraham Ancer 3&2 over Bernd Wiesberger
Group 14
Daniel Berger 6&4 over Erik van Rooyen
Harris English 1UP over Brendon Todd
Group 15
Jordan Spieth 3&1 over Matt Fitzpatrick
Matthew Wolff 3&1 over Corey Conners
Group 16
Sungjae Im 1UP over Russell Henley
Victor Perez 2&1 over Marc Leishman
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March 25, 2021 at 06:22AM
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2021 WGC-Dell Match Play scores, bracket: Upsets abound as major stars fall on Day 1 in Austin - CBS Sports
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