McIlroy, Spieth out of Match Play

Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth were among the big names eliminated from the WGCDell Match Play on Friday, leaving only two of the top ten seeds to contest the knockout rounds.

Four-time major champion McIlroy, playing in the third match of the day, was beaten 5&3 by Brian Harman at Austin Country Club while Spieth went down 2&1 to Ryder Cup partner Patrick Reed.

McIlroy (6) and Spieth (4), joined Dustin Johnson (1), Jon Rahm (3), Hideki Matsuyama (5), Jason Day, (8) Tommy Fleetwood (9) and Paul Casey (10) as the other top 10 seeds making an early exit.

Only world No. 2 Justin Thomas, seeded second, and Masters champion Sergio Garcia (7) made it through the cut-throat group stage.

McIlroy had to beat Harman on the final day of roundrobin play to have a chance of qualifying for the weekend, but it was all one-way traffic in Harman’s favour.

Despite being outdriven by 60 yards at times, 18th seed Harman proved steadier, losing only one hole.

“Rory did not play his best golf today but I played extremely well,” two-times PGA Tour winner Harman told Golf Channel. “I’m proud of the way I came out. Rory is an intimidating guy. He hits it a mile. I had this one [match] circled this week and I’m glad I came out and performed pretty well.”

Harman was the first player in the 64-man field to advance to the knockout stage.

Top seed Johnson, last year’s champion, had already been eliminated before Friday’s play and posted his third straight loss, going down 4&3 against Kevin Kisner.