Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WGC-DELL MATCH PLAY SETBACK FOR MAC
Favourite Rory loses opening tie
TOURNAMENT favourite Rory Mcilroy faces an uphill task to avoid an early exit from the WGC-DELL Technologies Match Play after losing to Peter Uihlein in his opening group game last night.
Mcilroy came into the event, which he won in 2015, on the back of a thrilling victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a closing round of 64.
But the World No7 found himself five down after just 10 holes at Austin Country Club.
Although he birdied five holes in succession on the back nine to stay alive, Uihlein
(inset) breathed a sigh of relief after a par on the
17th sealed a 2&1 victory.
Mcilroy could still advance to the last 16 with wins over Jhonattan Vegas today and then Brian Harman tomorrow but that would not be enough if Uihlein goes on to win all three group matches.
Defending champ Dustin Johnson, who never trailed in any of his seven matches last year, is in the same boat after losing 3&1 to Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.
The World No1 was one up after five but ran up a quadruple-bogey nine on the sixth and a double bogey on the 11th on his way to a surprise defeat.
World No2 Justin Thomas was earlier made to work hard for victory against Luke List, despite his opponent giving himself a self-inflicted handicap.
List was forced to putt with his sand wedge after bending his putter out of shape in frustration during the early stages of the Group Two contest.
But the World No67, who lost out to Thomas in a play-off for the Honda Classic last month, battled back from three down with four to play to take the tie all the way to the 18th before Thomas finally completed just his second victory in seven matches in the event.
The other match in Group 2 saw Italy’s Francesco Molinari beat Patton Kizzire 3&1, while England’s Tyrrell Hatton beat France’s Alexander Levy 3&2 in Group 12.
Reverting to the putter he used to spark the Miracle at Medinah in the 2012 Ryder Cup paid dividends for Ian Poulter, who beat European No1 Tommy Fleetwood 3&2 in an all-english clash in Group 9.
“My stats over the last number of months have been better than I’ve seen before, tee to green, so if I can start to hole the putts I’ve holed with that putter I’m going to do some good things,” Poulter said.
“I’m in need of a really good week this week to get into the Masters so it’s about getting the feeling back with something I’ve had success with. If I grab hold of a putter that I know has worked, then it’s on me.”