Rory McIlroy beats Scott Stallings 3&& 1 on opening day of WCG-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas; England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton lose very first matches in Austin; view the competition reside on Sky Sports through till Sunday’s last
Last Upgraded: 22/03/23 7:58 pm
Rory McIlroy beat Scott Stallings 3&& 1 on the opening day of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas
Rory McIlroy made a winning start to his quote for a 2nd WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play title with a 3&& 1 triumph over Scott Stallings in Texas.
McIlroy, who won this occasion in 2015, was 3 up thru 6 holes in Austin on Wednesday prior to being pegged back to one up thru 9 by the world No 62.
Nevertheless, the Northern Irishman birdied the par-three 11th – a hole his challenger bogeyed – to extend his lead and after that protected triumph at the par-three 17th with another birdie.
McIlroy will deal with Denny McCarthy and Keegan Bradley on Thursday and Friday respectively
World No 3 McIlroy will play Denny McCarthy on Thursday and Keegan Bradley on Friday as he wants to complete top of his four-man group and make the knockout phases this weekend.
Each of the swimming pool winners will advance to Saturday’s round of 16, with the quarter-finals held later on the exact same day prior to the semi-finals and last happen on Sunday.
McIlroy’s win over Stallings was his very first look given that missing out on the cut at The Players 2 weeks earlier.
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Somewhere Else in the Match Play, Players runner-up Tyrrell Hatton lost 3&& 1 to Ben Griffin.
The Englishman might be skeptical for the the remainder of the occasion after suffering discomfort in his right-hand man and arm striking a shot on the variety throughout his warm-up.
Ruling United States Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick’s battles continued, on the other hand, with a 5&& 3 defeat to JJ Spaun.
Fitzpatrick has actually missed out on the cut in 3 of his last 4 starts, around ending up 14th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
How does the Match Play work?
The very first 3 days are committed to round-robin match play, with the 64-player field divided into 16 groups of 4 and just the winner of each group then advancing to the knockout phases.
If there is a tie at the top of the group, then a sudden-death play-off in between those included will identify who advances through to the weekend.
The last 16 and the quarter-finals happen on Saturday, with the semi-finals arranged for at an early stage Sunday ahead of the last later that day. That indicates the winner will have played 7 rounds over the 5 days to raise the prize.
See the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play reside on Sky Sports throughout the week.
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