Opening round sees plenty of surprises
AUSTIN — Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay thrust their fists in celebration with birdies on the final hole to win, the kind of emotions typical for a final round. In the Dell Technologies Match Play, every day can feel like Sunday.
The opening round of group play Wednesday featured 16 of the 32 matches going the distance, Rory McIlroy suffering his worst loss in 10 years and some of the best moments belonging to newcomers to this fickle event.
That starts with Antoine Rozner, the 28-year-old from Paris who only got into this World Golf Championship by winning the Qatar Masters two weeks ago with a 60-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
Clinging to a one-shot lead over U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, a tree blocking the 54 yards that separated him from the flag, Rozner hit a bold flop shot that settled 8 feet behind the hole. The Frenchman holed the putt for a 2-up victory over DeChambeau.
“I think it’s one of those shots you’ve just got to go ahead and hit it,” Rozner said. “I turned out to hit that shot really well, went super high over the trees. Super happy that it was close because that put a lot of pressure on Bryson on the last chip. So yeah, very happy.”
McIlroy was so discouraged walking off after 13 holes that he declined to talk about his match.
Justin Thomas (2) joined DeChambeau (5) as the top seeds who lost their opening matches.
Collin Morikawa (4), Xander Schauffele (6), Patrick Reed (7) and Tyrrell Hatton (8) had to settle for ties.
Kevin Kisner, the defending champion from 2019won his seventh straight match by beating Louis Oosthuizen.
Dustin Johnson, the top seed, lost momentum when he found the water on the par-5 12th and threeputted from 15 feet to lose the 13th. He finally closed out Adam Long on the 18th hole.
“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.”
Sebastian Munoz rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the last hole, forcing Rahm to make his 8-footer to win. He rolled it in and chased it to the hole with a fist pump.
Two groups later, Cantlay made an 18-footer to finally put away Brian Harman, 1 up. The normally reserved Cantlay also gave a short fist pump and for good reason. He was never out of a hole and never made worse than par. He holed out a short wedge for eagle and made six birdies, and might have made another if the hole wasn’t conceded.
And he still needed a big putt on the last hole to win.
“I feel like it shouldn’t be that hard,” Cantlay said. “I played great. Didn’t make any bogeys, and it was all the way to the bitter end really sweating it out. … When you’re up against an opponent who plays really, really well and you play just a little better, it’s really satisfying.”