Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth both recorded comfortable wins on the opening day of the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship in San Francisco.
In the new round-robin format, the losers on day one still have an opportunity to reach the latter stages, but it was a confident start from the top two players in the world.
A disappointing round from Jason Dufner allowed McIlroy to ease to a 5&4 win, while Masters winner Spieth carded a projected six-under-par to beat Mikko Ilonen 4&2.
Third seed Henrik Stenson suffered defeat to John Senden on the first extra hole in his opening match, and there was also disappointment for Justin Rose and Jason Day, who lost to Marc Leishman and Charley Hoffman respectively.
Francesco Molinari caused one of the shocks of the day to defeat Adam Scott 5&4, while Ian Poulter lost to Webb Simpson 3&2.
Written by
Callum Mulvihill
Callum Mulvihill
