World No. 1 Jon Rahm of Spain earned a 5 and 4 victory over Cameron Young and improved to 2-0-0 at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin (Texas) Country Club.
Young went 2 up through five holes before Rahm won four straight holes to finish the back nine. Birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 and a par at 13 earned him three more holes to move 5 up, and the players halved the 14th, Young’s last chance to get back in the match.
“He (Young) was playing great golf,” Rahm said. “Obviously I just had to stay patient knowing that mine was coming. From 6 on I played wonderful golf.”
Rahm is one of 12 players to start the group stage with two wins, a collection of stars that also includes Viktor Hovland of Norway, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and defending champion Billy Horschel.
The 64-player field consists of 16 groups competing in round-robin play over the first three days of the event, with players awarded one point for a win and half a point for a tie. The player with the most points in each group advances to the Round of 16, with ties broken by a sudden-death play-off. The players today and tomorrow will feature single-elimination, head-to-head matches.
Ireland’s Seamus Power landed a surprising blow in Group 4 against top seed Patrick Cantlay. Power defeated the defending FedEx Cup champion and Ryder Cup star, 5 and 4, and improved to 2-0-0.
Cantlay won only one hole, the par-5 sixth, and Power was 2 up through nine before earning wins at Nos. 10, 13 and 14.
“It was starting to firm up and get a little faster out there,” Power said. “I didn’t make too many mistakes and obviously I caught Patrick on a day when he didn’t play his best, so I was able to take advantage, and yeah, great to get a point.”
Power, ranked 48th in the world, is seen as a rising star in the golf world and earned his first PGA Tour win last July at the Barbasol Championship.
In other lopsided results, Group 6 top seed Justin Thomas beat Australia’s Marc Leishman 5 and 4, and in Group 4 South Korea’s Sungjae Im took care of Keith Mitchell 5 and 3. Many matches were closer than that. England’s Lee Westwood saved par on the par-4 18th while Bryson DeChambeau made bogey, giving Westwood the 1-up victory. Xander Schauffele, the top seed in Group 7, lost a 2-up lead through 12 holes and Lucas Herbert of Australia birdied the last hole to win 1 up. Herbert improved to 2-0-0.
Bubba Watson was 1 down to Webb Simpson through 16 holes before winning each of the last two and winning 1 up. He made a crucial 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th to tie the match and set up his win. “Normally I get beat on 17 with a long putt like that, so it was nice to actually do it,” Watson said.
Sergio Garcia of Spain earned a tie with world No. 2 Collin Morikawa. Garcia trailed all match, including 3 down through 13, before winning three straight holes and halving the final two.
Group 10 is the only group with two players at 2-0-0. England’s Paul Casey, fighting back spasms, didn’t make it to the tee box and conceded to Sweden’s Alex Noren one day after conceding to Canada’s Corey Conners after two holes.