Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark, 48-year-old Jim Furyk and Kevin Na of Diamond Bar pulled off the big surprises in the first of three days of group play in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Bjerregaard (pictured) upset fifth-seeded Justin Thomas, 3 and 2, while Furyk took down 12-seeded Jason Day of Australia, 2 up, and Na surprised 15th-seeded Bubba Watson, 1 up, at Austin Country Club www.austincountryclub.com in Austin, Texas.
“I didn’t give too much away,” said No. 50 Bjerrregard, who was 2 down to Thomas through three holes, but made 112 feet of putts while building a 4-up lead through 12 holes. “And then I made a couple of good putts (from 27 and 26 feet) where JT had hit it closer than me and he missed those. So there was a couple of match play moments in there that were pretty key for me there.”
Said No. 57 Na, who rallied from 2 down after 11 holes, but won when Watson conceded his 10-foot birdie putt on the last hole after struggling to escape a greenside bunker: “I wasn’t playing that badly (early), just wasn’t making any putts. Then I hit into the water at No. 7, but made a great recovery and was able to make par to halve the hole. That kind of changed the momentum, turned things around. … Any time you beat a two-time Masters champion and the defending champion, it’s a big thing. It’s a great feeling.”
Said No. 52 Furyk, who was 3 down to Day through eight holes before coming back to win on an 11-foot birdie putt at No. 18: “I was definitely upset with myself, being 3 down, and I just wanted to make him earn it. It was nice to see a couple long putts go in on 9 and 10 to turn things around. Then, when I won 11 to get even, it was kind of a new start.”
Day, who won this event in 2014 and 2016, three-putted the 17th hole to fall behind.
No. 51 Andrew Putnam of Pepperdine knocked off No. 16 Patrick Reed, 3 and 2, and No. 60 Tom Lewis of England halved his match with No. 3 Brooks Koepka.
The other players who are top-seeded in their groups won on opening day.
No. 1 Dustin Johnson cruised past No. 55 Chez Reavie, 4 and 3; No. 2 Justin Rose downed No. 53 Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, 2 and 1; No. 4 Rory McIlroy, the 2015 WGC-Match Play champion, defeated No. 64 Luke List, 5 and 4; No. 6 Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis beat No. 59 Russell Knox of Scotland, 3 and 1; and No. 7 Francesco Molinari of Italy trounced No. 63 Satoshi Kodaira of Japan, 5 and 4.
No. 8 Jon Rahm of Spain routed No. 54 Si Woo Kim of South Korea, 7 and 5; No. 9 Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State downed No. 62 Lee Westwood of England; No. 10 Paul Casey of England beat No. 58 Abraham Ancer of Mexico, 5 and 3; No. 11 Tommy Fleetwood of England got past No. 49 Byeong Hun An of South Korea, 3 and 2; No. 13 Tiger Woods, a three-time WGC-Match Play champ, defeated No. 61 Aaron Wise, 3 and 1, and No. 14 Tony Finau took down No. 56 Keith Mitchell, 2 and 1.
In other notable matches, No. 37 Henrik Stenson of Sweden, the 2007 champion, knocked off No. 20 Phil Mickelson, 2 and 1; No. 23 Matt Kuchar, the 2013 winner, beat No. 43 J.B. Holmes, 3 and 1, and No. 30 Ian Poulter of England, the 2010 champ, defeated No. 48 Kevin Kisner, 2 up.
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