Johnson goes tumbling out

Holder makes his exit after second successive match-play defeat

World number one and defending champion Dustin Johnson crashed out of the WGC-Dell Technologies match-play event with a game to play after suffering his second straight defeat.

Johnson never trailed at any point in his seven matches last year as he became the first player to win all four World Golf Championship titles.

But the 33-year-old lost to Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger on the opening day at Austin Country Club, Texas, and was again out of sorts in a 4 and 3 defeat by Canada’s Adam Hadwin yesterday which guarantees he cannot qualify knockout stages.

An eagle on the sixth and a birdie from 35ft on the ninth gave Hadwin command of the match and Johnson’s hopes effectively sank when he hit two balls into the water on the par-4 13th.

European number one Tommy Fleetwood had earlier bounced back in style from an “awful” opening defeat to keep his hopes of a first WGC title alive.

Fleetwood lost 3 and 2 to fellow Englishman Ian Poulter on day one in Austin, but it was a completely different story yesterday for the as he cruised to a 7 and 6 victory against American Kevin Chappell, the biggest winning margin of the week so far.

“I walked off the course (yesterday) really disappointed in myself,” Fleetwood said. “Not to take anything away from Ian because he played solid and did what he needed to do, but I putted really poor and felt like I gifted everything to him all day.

“You just sit there for an hour and think that was awful. I knew I had to work on my putting and did some work on it in the afternoon and tried to come out with a much more positive attitude.”

That seemed to do the trick as Fleetwood won the first four holes of the match

“You just sit there for an hour and think that was awful”

and lost just one throughout a one-sided contest against Chappell, who had beaten Daniel Berger on Wednesday.

“Kevin wasn’t having a very good time today, he struggled early on and it’s that kind of course,” Fleetwood added. “With the wind swirling like it is and being so strong you can just get caught out so easily.”

The destiny of Group 9 is still in Poulter’s hands after he beat Berger 2 and 1 to maintain his 100% record, but a three-man play-off is possible if Fleetwood beats Berger and Poulter loses to Chappell today.

Ryder Cup partners Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed will go head-to-head today to decide the winner of Group 4, Spieth beating Li Haotong 4 and 2 and Reed defeating former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel on the 18th. l Former Dallas Cowboys quarter back Tony Romo struggled to an opening 77 on his PGA Tour debut in the Corales Puntacana Resort championship.

Romo, who unsuccessfully attempted to qualify for the US Open on three occasions, is playing in the Dominican Republic on a

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NO HIDING PLACE: Dustin Johnson has that sinking feeling on his way to defeat by Canadian Adam Hadwin, inset