WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play Day 1

WGC – Match Play 2021 R1
March 24-28
Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas
$10,500,000
Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Rory McIlroy fired two birdies in the thirteen holes he played with Ian Poulter, hit only six of ten fairways and sent one of his tee shots into a pool at the fifth while Poulter won five back-to-back holes starting from the 9th to win 6 and 5.

WGC – Match Play 2021 R1

“He missed a couple of tee shots left,” said Poulter. “From that point he was trying to hit a kind of a bit of a hold-up cut. But it’s Rory, it doesn’t take a lot for Rory to spark up pretty quickly and I wasn’t surprised with anything, I just felt that I had done a pretty decent job of putting him under pressure, I made it difficult for him.”

“I kind of like the (win) or bust attitude, to be honest with you. It gets the adrenaline going, the ticker starts going and quite frankly you’ve just got to (win) or bust. You got to pony up and hit shots,” Poulter said.

WGC – Match Play 2021 R1

“The ebbs and flows that you have in a great match, that, if you get your ball in first, sometimes, it loads the pressure on your opponent and especially when you’re in front like that, you can at times force him to make a mistake.”

It was McIlroy’s biggest loss in Match Play since losing to Ben Crane 8 and 7, in the second round in 2011.

WGC – Match Play 2021 R1

Antoine Rozner’s victory at the Qatar Masters two weeks ago moved him to 63rd in the World Rankings and qualified him for the WGC Championship. He held a 3-up lead after 12 holes, DeChambeau won the 13th then Rozner holed a 26-foot par putt on 14. DeChambeau was 1-down with two holes remaining and lost when Rozner holed an 8-foot birdie on 18.

“I think I’m just trying to play good golf and it’s the strongest field I ever played against, so I’m enjoying it, I had a lot of fun today out there and, yeah, I’m very happy,” said Rozner, who is hoping to qualify for the Ryder Cup.

“It’s a dream. It’s a goal. I’m still quite far behind in the rankings and I think in Padraig’s mind for the Ryder Cup, so I’m just trying to play good golf,” Rozner said. “If I can be in that team, for sure that would be amazing for me.”

WGC – Match Play 2021 R1

Robert MacIntyre fired two eagles in his final five holes for a 2-and-1 win over Kevin Na.

2019 champion Kevin Kisne won his seventh straight match by beating Louis Oosthuizen.

World number 1 Dustin Johnson found the water on the par-5 12th and lost the 13th after three-putting from 15 feet but won his match against Adam Long on the 18th.

“Winning your first match definitely helps,” Johnson said. “But you’ve still got to go pretty much win all three matches if you want to advance.”

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WGC – Match Play 2021 R1

Group	Player		Score		Player
11	MCILROY, Rory		6&5	<	POULTER, Ian
11	SMITH, Cameron	>	1UP		GRIFFIN, Lanto
6	SCHAUFFELE, Xander		Halved		SULLIVAN, Andy
6	SCHEFFLER, Scottie	>	2UP		DAY, Jason
14	BERGER, Daniel	>	6&4		VAN ROOYEN, Erik
14	ENGLISH, Harris	>	1UP		TODD, Brendon
3	RAHM, Jon	>	1UP		MUNOZ, Sebastian
3	PALMER, Ryan	>	4&2		LOWRY, Shane
10	CANTLAY, Patrick	>	1UP		HARMAN, Brian
10	MATSUYAMA, Hideki		4&3	<	ORTIZ, Carlos
7	REED, Patrick		Halved		WATSON, Bubba
7	NIEMANN, Joaquin		Halved		BEZUIDENHOUT, Christiaan
15	FITZPATRICK, Matthew		3&1	<	SPIETH, Jordan
15	WOLFF, Matthew	>	3&1		CONNERS, Corey
2	THOMAS, Justin		3&2	<	KUCHAR, Matt
2	OOSTHUIZEN, Louis		2&1	<	KISNER, Kevin
12	FINAU, Tony		6&5	<	FRITTELLI, Dylan
12	KOKRAK, Jason	>	1UP		ZALATORIS, Will
5	DECHAMBEAU, Bryson		2UP	<	ROZNER, Antoine
5	FLEETWOOD, Tommy		Halved		KIM, Si Woo
13	HOVLAND, Viktor		4&2	<	STREELMAN, Kevin
13	ANCER, Abraham	>	3&2		WIESBERGER, Bernd
4	MORIKAWA, Collin		Halved		POSTON, J. T.
4	HORSCHEL, Billy	>	1UP		HOMA, Max
9	SIMPSON, Webb	>	6&5		GOOCH, Talor
9	CASEY, Paul		3&2	<	HUGHES, Mackenzie
8	HATTON, Tyrrell		Halved		WALLACE, Matt
8	WESTWOOD, Lee		4&3	<	GARCIA, Sergio
16	IM, Sungjae	>	1UP		HENLEY, Russell
16	PEREZ, Victor	>	2&1		LEISHMAN, Marc
1	JOHNSON, Dustin	>	2UP		LONG, Adam
1	NA, Kevin		2&1	<	MACINTYRE, Robert