WGC Cadillac Match Play 2015 results and bracket: Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth roll on Day 1

The first day of the all-new WGC Cadillac Match Play didn’t have the do-or-die tension of the old single elimination format, but Wednesday’s opening round-robin pool play was a nice appetizer to start the week at Harding Park. Everyone is still alive, but an 0-1 hole will be harder to dig out of than it appears. Graeme McDowell, who dropped his match to Shane Lowry, tweeted that it would take a combination of luck and two wins over the next two days to make it to the single elimination Sweet 16 bracket. So the real grinding should start Thursday afternoon. Here’s a recap of the opening day of this completely overhauled event:

One of the more competitive matches featuring two of the top American talents was Rickie Fowler vs. Harris English. Fowler played well and enjoyed a lead throughout the back nine, but English won back-to-back holes at the 14th and 15th to make him earn it down the closing stretch. English is known as one of the big hitters on Tour, but it was Fowler driving the green at the 344-yard 16th hole that pushed the margin back to two, and made it academic.

Fowler and English have had a ton of hype since their early 20s coming right out of college. They occasionally (or often) take heat for not having more wins on their resume or, in the case of English, losing focus at critical times and giving away chances. Both should win several PGA Tour events before their careers are over, and repeatedly contend at majors. The talent is there and it was fun to watch them exchange blows on Wednesday.

It was difficult to see our conquering hero from last year get his clock cleaned. But Frenchman Victor Dubuisson was never in it against Charl Schwartzel, who rolled to a 5&4 win.

This event was Dubuisson’s coming-out party for the American audience last year. He kept saving par and matching Jason Day from some of the most impossible spots in the Arizona desert, fighting jumping cacti, desert wash, rocks and TV cables to make some of the truly absurd short game shots the tour has ever seen. He then added to the legend with an undefeated Ryder Cup in September.

But he hasn’t been as solid this year, and Schwartzel pounced on him with a birdie at the opening hole. Back-to-back Dubuisson bogeys at the second and third put this one out of reach early on. Schwartzel went 4-up through four holes and it was all over. Here’s hoping Dubuisson finds some form over the last two days -- it would be a shame not to see him back in that single elimination do-or-die setting.

The most shocking result was Anirban Lahiri taking Ryan Palmer to the woodshed. Palmer has been one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour in recent months. He’s a ball-striking ace who was a trendy darkhorse pick at the Masters and seemed like a good pick to make it out of his pool this week.

Lahiri has had his European Tour card less than a year and hasn’t looked too strong in a few stateside starts. The skepticism around him was that he padded his world ranking with a couple early season Euro Tour wins against mediocre-to-poor fields. He looked overmatched in his first US start, the prior WGC event at Doral back in March. But he did make the cut at the Masters and at the Heritage since that Doral debut.

Lahiri had a multi-hole cushion throughout the back nine, and this chip-in at the 14th pretty much locked it up.

He posted six birdies on Wednesday, so this wasn’t just catching Palmer on an off-round. Both lower seeds won their matches in this pool. He’s got a good chance to advance.

Lahiri can become an international star who succeeds at these events for years to come, but he hadn’t exactly been tested, and taking it to such a hot and consistent Tour pro like Palmer was unexpected.

This is an easy choice. Ben Martin never led his match against the heavily favored Matt Kuchar until the 17th hole. There, he fired a hybrid off the tee at the 243-yard par-3 and put his ball right in the hole. The ace obviously put Kuchar on his heels with just one hole to play, and he couldn’t make a relatively short birdie putt at the 18th to force Martin to extras. Aces are almost always going to be the shot of the day on tour, but one from 243 yards out is something else.

The two headliners of the week, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, took care of their matches against Jason Dufner and Mikko Ilonen. Neither were really threatened. Those top two seeds cannot meet until the championship on Sunday afternoon, but the dream is still alive.

Here are the results of all 32 matches from Wednesday:

An opening day loss isn’t an automatic elimination like in recent years, but it does put you in a tough hole and makes the final two days must-wins. Unlike the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, there are no half-points awarded under this format. These matches weren’t elimination matches, but they were carried out through extra playoff holes until a winner and loser were determined -- which is rare for matches that aren’t final or sudden death at the end of the week.

Here are your updated standings after one day of round robin pool play:

The 16-man bracket will not be set until Friday, but here’s a visual view via PGATour.com (click to enlarge):