Robert Streb knocked off Dustin Johnson, 3 and 2, in probably the biggest upset of the first day in the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.
Johnson, top-seeded in Group 8, hit into the water en route to a double bogey on the third hole and added four bogeys in his round, as Streb (pictured) built a 3-up lead at the turn and stayed in control with two birdies on the back nine.
“I played pretty solid, nothing special,” said Streb, whose only PGA Tour victory came in the 2014 McGladrey Classic. “Enough to get by. … I haven’t been playing well lately. It was nice to win one of those, but I’ve still got a few more to go.”
Jason Dufner, the 2011 PGA champion, defeated top-seeded Rickie Fowler, 2 and 1, in Group 5, and in Group 4, Patton Kizzire halved his match with top-seeded Bubba Watson, and in Group 6, Thomas Pieters of Belgium halved with top-seeded Adam Scott of Australia.
In Group 11, Chris Kirk upset No. 1 Branden Grace of South Africa, 3 and 1, while in Group 12, Rafa Cabrera-Bello surprised top-seeded Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, 1 up.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, top-seeded in Group 3, won the 18th hole with a par to slip past Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, 1 up.
“It was scrappy out there, but it was hard because the wind was gusty,” defending champion McIlroy said. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, but I hung in there and hit good shots when I needed to. … So I’m just happy to get the win.”
Top-ranked Jordan Spieth, who played college golf in Austin at the University of Texas, downed Jamie Donaldson of Wales, 3 and 2, in Group 1, and Jason Day of Australia, top-seeded in Group 2, rallied from 2-down after four holes to get past Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, 3 and 2, despite tweaking his back in the 15th hole.
Day said after treatment that he plans to play in Round 2 of Pool Play.
In Group 10, Jaco Van Zyl of South Africa birdied the 16th hole to halve his match with top-seeded Danny Willett of England, and top-seeded Justin Rose of England needed all 18 holes to beat Fabian Gomez of Argentina, 2 up.
In the most lopsided match of the day, Matt Kuchar trounced Anirban Lahiri of India, 6 and 5, in Group 7, and Phil Mickelson drubbed Matthew Fitzpatrick of England, 5 and 4, in Group 9.
