Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson suffered surprise defeats on the opening day of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas.
McIlroy was five down after just 10 holes against an inspired Peter Uihlein, who held off a late rally from last week’s Bay Hill champion to earn a 2&1 victory and leave McIlroy facing an early exit for the second year running.
Defending champion Johnson was completely out of sorts in a scrappy Group 1 clash with Bernd Wiesberger as the Austrian claimed a notable scalp, while last year’s runner-up, Jon Rahm, had to dig deep to win the final hole to halve his clash with Keegan Bradley.
But Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and two-time winner Jason Day all avoided any mishaps in their opening group matches, and Ian Poulter lifted his hopes of qualifying for the Masters with an impressive win over European No 1 Tommy Fleetwood.
McIlroy arrived in Austin as the pre-tournament favourite following his thrilling three-shot win at Bay Hill, but he failed to make a birdie on the outward nine as three birdies from Uihlein and a concession at the short fourth propelled the American into a four-hole lead.
A par at the 10th took Uihlein five ahead before McIlroy finally made a birdie to halve the 12th, and that galvanised the world No 7 as he extended the contest with three consecutive winning birdies from the 14th.
But he was unable to find the target from the fringe at 17 and Uihlein held his nerve to make a solid par to seal victory, while the other Group 6 clash between Brian Harman and Jhonattan Vegas ended all square.
“I made him earn it at least, and I made the scoreline a little more respectable,” said McIlroy. “I didn’t necessarily play badly, but Peter played pretty well and he didn’t make a bogey all day so it was hard to claw my way back. I made a run at him at the end, but it was a little too late.
“I’ll just have to forget it and go on to tomorrow. Obviously it’s out of my control now, so I’ve just got to win my next two matches and hopefully the draw works in my favour.”
Johnson led his match early on despite not making a birdie over the first five holes, but he then scrapped his way to an ugly quadruple-bogey nine at the sixth and dropped another shot at the next to gift Wiesberger the lead.
Wiesberger bogeyed the next but reclaimed the advantage at the turn when he made the first birdie of the match at the ninth, and a par at 11 doubled his lead before Johnson levelled the match with his first two birdies at 12 and 13.
But the world No 1 made further mistakes down the stretch as three wins in a row for Wiesberger swept him to a 3&1 success, which he achieved with only two birdies on his card.
Second seed Thomas was in control early on against Luke List, who was forced to putt with a wedge after damaging his putter while walking off the sixth green.
Thomas was three up after seven holes and then preserved his advantage with an astonishing up-and-down from a deep hazard at the ninth, but List defied the lack of a putter to rally on the back nine and birdie 13, 15 and 16 to reduce the arrears to one.
But List could do no better than par at the last as Thomas prevailed one-up, while his close-friend Spieth won the battle of the Masters champions as he beat Charl Schwartzel 2&1.
Poulter needs to reach the last eight to have any chance of qualifying for the Masters via the top 50 in the world rankings, and the 2010 champion made the ideal start with a 3&2 win over Fleetwood.
Described earlier this week by Fleetwood as a “match play ninja”, Poulter dusted off the putter he used to memorable effect in the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, but he still faces a tough task to advance from Group 9 with clashes against Daniel Berger and Kevin Chappell to follow over the next two days.
Tyrrell Hatton, a 3&2 winner over Alex Levy, and Paul Casey, who fought back from two down to edge out Russell Henley, provided further success for English golfers, but Matt Fitzpatrick suffered defeat to a Kyle Stanley birdie on the final hole.
Comeback of the day went to Zach Johnson, who was four down with four to play before he birdied the final four holes to snatch an unlikely half against Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Kuchar.
