Bernd Wiesberger of Austria pulled off the biggest surprise of the first round in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, knocking off top-seeded Dustin Johnson, 3 and 1, at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.
The 52nd-seeded Wiesberger (pictured) didn’t exactly play lights-out, making only two birdies against four bogeys, but it was good enough on a day defending champion Johnson played 17 holes in 9-over par.
“I thought it was the easiest game I could have—I’m the underdog playing with the defending champion, so it was just try to go out there and see what happens,” said the 32-year-old Austrian, who has won 10 times as a pro, but not on the PGA Tour.
“We both didn’t have a great day, obviously, as you can see on the card. He gave away a couple of holes quite unexpectedly. You’ve still got to make the par when your opponent makes the bogey.”
DJ, who made a quadruple-bogey 9 when he hit two drives out of bounds on the sixth hole, bounced back from a 2-down deficit and seemed to turn the match around with birdies on the 12th and 13th holes to pull even.
However, Johnson lost the 15th with a bogey before Wiesberger went back to 2 up with a birdie on the next hole and it was over when DJ made another bogey at No. 17.
In another upset, 57th-seeded Peter Uihlein surprised No. 6 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, by a 2-and-1 score.
Uihlein was 5 up after 10 holes before McIlroy got back into the hunt with five straight birdies, but the American matched two of those birdies and held on down the stretch.
“I just kept putting pressure on him all day,” said Uihlein, who has won once on the European Tour and once on the Web.com Tour. “And I felt like, especially on the front, I was always having a chance to win the hole with a putt. I think when you’re able to do that in match play, you kind of control your fate or control how the match is going to go.
“You always feel like a guy like that—really any player seems like out there, they’re eventually going to make a run. You’re going to trade blows little bit. And he landed some at the end. And I was able to kind of hold him off, which was nice.”
In other upsets, 58th-seeded Ian Poulter of England beat countryman Tommy Fleetwood, No. 9, by a 3-and-2 score, and No. 64 Julian Suri, the last man in the field, defeated No. 11 Marc Leishman of Australia, 3 and 2.
No. 2 Justin Thomas, No. 3 Jon Rahm of Spain, No. 4 Jordan Spieth, No. 5 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 7 Sergio Garcia of Spain, No. 8 Jason Day of Australia, and No. 10 Paul Casey all won their first-round matches.
The first-round losers still have a chance to advance in the four-player groups, depending on what happens in the next two rounds.
For complete results, visit https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.
