Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson Headline Round 1 WGC-Dell Match Play 2019 Winners

Rather than wait for the weekend to get here, the PGA Tour is already back with the start of the 2019 WGC-Dell Match Play.

Wednesday's schedule featured the first of three round-robin matches involving 64 players divided into 16 groups of four. Winners from each group will advance to will move on to the single-elimination portion of the bracket starting Saturday. 

Here are the results from all 32 head-to-head matchups at the Austin Country Club, via PGATour.com:

Group 1: No. 1 Dustin Johnson def. No. 55 Chez Reavie (4 & 3)

Group 1: No. 24 Hideki Matsuyama def. No. 40 Branden Grace (4 & 3)

Group 2: No. 2 Justin Rose def. No. 53 Emiliano Grillo (2 & 1)

Group 2: No. 22 Gary Woodland def. No. 34 Eddie Pepperell (2 & 1)

Group 3: No. 3 Brooks Koepka vs. No. 60 Tom Lewis (Halved)

Group 3: No. 36 HaoTong Li def. No. 27 Alex Noren (5 & 4)

Group 4: No. 4 Rory McIlroy def. No. 64 Luke List (5 & 4)

Group 4: No. 47 Justin Harding def. No. 32 Matthew Fitzpatrick (1 up)

Group 5: No. 50 Lucas Bjerregaard def. No. 5 Justin Thomas (3 & 2)

Group 5: No. 33 Matt Wallace def. No. 31 Keegan Bradley (1 up)

Group 6: No. 6 Bryson DeChambeau def. No. 59 Russell Knox (3 & 1)

Group 6: No. 17 Marc Leishman def. No. 39 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (2 up)

Group 7: No. 7 Francesco Molinari def. No. 63 Satoshi Kodaira (5 & 4)

Group 7: No. 45 Thorbjorn Olesen def. No. 21 Webb Simpson (2 & 1)

Group 8: No. 8 Jon Rahm def. No. 54 Si Woo Kim (7 & 5)

Group 8: No. 23 Matt Kuchar def. No. 43 J.B. Holmes (3 & 1)

Group 9: No. 9 Xander Schauffele def. No. 62 Lee Westwood (1 up)

Group 9: No. 35 Tyrell Hatton def. No. 29 Rafa Cabrera Bello (4 & 3)

Group 10: No. 10 Paul Casey def. No. 58 Abraham Ancer (5 & 3)

Group 10: No. 42 Charles Howell III def. No. 25 Cameron Smith (2 & 1)

Group 11: No. 11 Tommy Fleetwood def. No. 48 Byeong Hun An (3 & 2)

Group 11: No. 41 Kyle Stanley def. No. 19 Louis Oosthuizen (3 & 2)

Group 12: No. 52 Jim Furyk def. No. 12 Jason Day (2 up)

Group 12: No. 37 Henrik Stenson def. No. 20 Phil Mickelson (2 & 1)

Group 13: No. 13 Tiger Woods def. No. 61 Aaron Wise (3 & 1)

Group 13: No. 18 Patrick Cantlay vs. No. 44 Brandt Snedeker (halved)

Group 14: No. 14 Tony Finau def. No. 56 Keith Mitchell (2 & 1)

Group 14: No. 30 Ian Poulter def. No. 48 Kevin Kisner (2 up)

Group 15: No. 57 Kevin Na def. No. 15 Bubba Watson (1 up)

Group 15: No. 28 Jordan Spieth vs. No. 38 Billy Horschel (halved)

Group 16: No. 51 Andrew Putnam def. No. 16 Patrick Reed (3 & 2)

Group 16: No. 26 Sergio Garcia def. No. 46 Shane Lowry (4 & 2)

Fresh off a win at The Players Championship two weeks ago, Rory McIlroy picked up right where he left off with an easy 5 and 4 win over Luke List. 

The back nine is when McIlroy kicked things into gear. He made the turn two-up, took advantage of a double-bogey by List on No. 11 to increase the lead before consecutive birdies on 13 and 14 ended the match. 

Dustin Johnson had no problems against Chez Reavie. The top seed took the lead with a win on the first hole and never looked back en route to a 4-and-3 victory. 

Wednesday marks a quantum leap forward for Johnson after he went winless in three round-robin matches last year. 

One player who isn't celebrating his round is Billy Horschel, who appeared to be cruising toward an easy win over Jordan Spieth. The Florida native was three up after six holes before Spieth finally found life on No. 7:

Horschel got his lead back to two up when Spieth bogeyed No. 15, but he proceeded to drop two of the final three holes to settle for halving the match. 

While Spieth was able to battle back from an early deficit, his comeback had nothing on what Jim Furyk accomplished against Jason Day. The 52nd-seed was down three after a bogey on No. 8. He closed the match by winning six of the final 10 holes to win the match outright. 

There may be an explanation for Day's collapse, per Ben Everill of PGATour.com:

Day was forced to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this month after six holes with back problems. If the injury persists, he could miss The Masters in two weeks. 

Making his first appearance at this event since 2013, Tiger Woods had a successful return with a 3 and 1 win over Aaron Wise. 

Woods and Wise engaged in a seesaw affair that saw three different lead changes, including Wise winning three straight holes from No. 8-10 to go one up. Woods settled down after that point, taking No. 11 and 13 to move back on top for good. 

One theme that held true on the first day of match play is that past success proved to be an indicator of present performance:

Other notable results include 2018 champion Bubba Watson losing to Kevin Na and Henrik Stenson knocking off Phil Mickelson.

The upside for everyone who went down Wednesday is they will have a chance to redeem themselves tomorrow in the second match of round-robin play. Another loss will make it extremely difficult to have a shot at making it to the quarterfinals. 

Meanwhile, the winners are afforded some cushion heading into their second match. One more victory will all but assure them a spot in the quarterfinals.