AUSTIN — World No. 1 Dustin Johnson rolled and Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth stumbled, while Jason Day left to be with his ailing mother in Wednesday’s opening day of the WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas.
Johnson won the first three holes and was 5-up after nine holes and steamrolled Webb Simpson 5&3.
“When you get up real early, you just want to keep the momentum on your side,” said Johnson.
Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth were surprise losers in their first round-robin matches at Austin Country Club.
McIlroy, who reached last year’s semifinals, fell 2&1 to Dane Soren Kjeldsen while Japan’s Hideto Tanihara, making his first appearance at the tournament, routed Spieth 4&2.
Kjeldsen was 1-down with five to play but rattled off four successive birdies, knocking his last four approaches inside nine feet, with the last three inside four feet.
Northern Irishman McIlroy will play Gary Woodland on Thursday and Argentine Emiliano Grillo on Friday. Woodland beat Grillo 3&2.
Twice major champion Spieth never led against Tanihara, who has 13 career titles overseas. The American played his last nine holes in three over, hitting only one green.
Next up for the Texan is a clash with Japan’s Yuta Ikeda Thursday and Ryan Moore on Friday. Moore halved his match with Ikeda. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and US Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk halved, while Brooks Koepka was lights out with the putter in a 6&5 trouncing of fellow American Kevin Kisner.
Day, last year’s winner, walked off the course after six holes, revealing to reporters that he was leaving to be with his mother, who is having lung cancer surgery Friday.
“Hard to comprehend being on the Golf course right now with what she’s going through,” said a tearful Day. “Family is first.”
The event is comprised of 16 four-player groups who play round-robin matches from Wednesday through Friday with the winners of each group advancing to a single-elimination bracket at the weekend.
Players receive one point for a win and a half-point for a halved match.
Ko, Ariya among top field
Top-ranked defending champion Lydia Ko and world No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn pace an elite field for this week’s LPGA Kia Classic, the last tuneup for next week’s first major championship.
In all, 23 of the world’s 25 top-ranked players will compete at Aviara Golf Club near San Diego ahead of next week’s ANA Inspiration at Rancho Mirage, California.
But New Zealand 19-year-old Ko will be a focus as the reigning champion at Rancho Mirage as well as this week even as she tries to enjoy some of her favorite holes.
Many players, including South Korea’s sixth-ranked Jang Ha-na, will try to treat the week like any other even as she fine tunes her game in quest of a first major title next week.
Thailand’s Ariya has been ranked second to Ko with 34 weeks in a row and hopes to close the gap even as the South Korean-born Kiwi has found her form with three top-10 showings this year, including shares of eight last week at the Founders Cup and in Thailand and ninth at Singapore. — Agencies
