Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler got off to winning starts at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club.
The Northern Irishman saw off Scott Stallings 3&1 while Scheffler, the World Number One and defending champion, went the distance to eventually finish 1UP over Davis Riley.
“Yeah, really good,” said McIlroy.
“That’s the main thing this week. Obviously there’s a ton of golf left this season, but to get a little bit of match play in our lives is good and get under pressure.
“There’s a couple of putts on the back nine there that I was actually glad I had the hole. It’s good practice, but at the same time I want to win the match.
“Overall, six birdies, one bogey. It was a pretty decent day and some tricky wind. The course was obviously soft after the rain the last couple days. Happy to get the win and move on to tomorrow.”
It was an intriguing first day in the 64-man match play event in Austin with two-time DP World Tour winner Min Woo Lee claiming a thriller against Sahith Theegala on the final hole to win 1UP.
Debutants Adrian Meronk and Ryan Fox settled quickly with impressive opening victories as Meronk got the better of Kurt Kitayama 2&1 with birdies at the 16th and 17th, while Fox beat Harris English 2&1.
World Number Two Jon Rahm has a job on his hands to get out of Group 2 after a surprise loss to Rickie Fowler 2&1. Meanwhile, Victor Perez was undone 2&1 by Collin Morikawa in Group 9 where Jason Day, a two-time winner of this event, looked good in a 4&2 victory over Adam Svensson.
Sungjae Im posted the biggest win of the day, 8&6 against Maverick McNealy.
There were also first day wins for Sam Burns, Corey Conners, Tony Finau, Ben Griffin, Lucas Herbert, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, Taylor Montgomery, JT Poston, Andrew Putnam, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, JJ Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Aaron Wise and Cameron Young.
