Ho Sung Choi: What’s in the bag

Day 1 of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship delivered. There were plenty of upsets, as Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland all lost their opening matches. RELATED: Live scoring, tee times, bracket They'll be looking to dig themselves out a hole, while Cinderellas like University of Texas alum Dylan Frittelli and Antoine Rozner will try to keep busting brackets. This file will be updated live at the conclusion of each match to keep you apprised of the action from the TOUR's only match-play event. Return here often to learn about the latest upsets, comebacks and nail-biting finishes. MATCH RECAPS Group 15 MATT FITZPATRICK (1-1-0) def. COREY CONNERS (0-2-0), 5 and 4 They halved two of the first three holes with birdies, but the match of first-round losers turned lopsided as Fitzpatrick continued to rack up birdies and Conners again succumbed to mistakes. Fitzpatrick, who in four tries has never made it out of group play - he lost a tiebreaker to Kevin Na in 2017 - went 4-up with his fifth birdie of the day at the 10th hole. Conners, who had already given away two holes with front-nine bogeys, hit into the water at the 11th and conceded the hole. The lead was 5-up and the match was all but over. Group 10 PATRICK CANTLAY (2-0-0) def. CARLOS ORTIZ (1-1-0), 1-up There wasn't much give and take in this match of unbeatens in Group 10. Ortiz never led, and Cantlay never led more than 1-up. Both competitors played well, with Ortiz making five birdies in his loss. Cantley inched ahead with a 7-footer for birdie at 14, and the two traded birdies at the par-5 16th. Ortiz had one final attempt to tie the match, but his 15-footer for birdie from behind the hole at 18 curled off to the left. Cantlay has made 15 birdies in two days, and both of his matches (he beat Brian Harman, 1 up) went the distance. Cantlay said: "They've both (his matches) been extremely difficult. Sometimes match play is like that. Depending on the day, you have to bring it harder than other days. I've played really well. I'm happy with where my game is at, and I'm just going to keep plugging away." Group 7 PATRICK REED def. CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT, 2 and 1 Reed got off to a fast start - three birdies in his first five holes - and never did let Bezuidenhout, the South African, back into the match once he won Nos. 8 and 9 and built a 3-up advantage through nine. Reed made four birdies in that opening nine, three of them coming from outside 13 feet. Bezuidenhout twice trimmed his deficit to 2-down, winning with a par when Reed messed up the 12th and making a nice birdie from a bunker at 16. Reed closed out the match with a par at 17. Reed said: "I got off to a better start on ballstriking. I was able to put myself in the right positions early, and because of that, I was able to be aggressive with the putting. I feel like if I can putt aggressively, it just seems to free everything up." JOAQUIN NIEMANN (0-0-2) tied BUBBA WATSON (0-0-2) Both players were hot and cold in a match that Watson never led but Niemann could never quite close out. Niemann birdied three of the first four holes to jump out to a 1-up lead. Watson, the 2018 champion here, continued to play well but also gave away holes with bogeys at Nos. 1 and 8, then hit into the water at the par-4 13th hole as Niemann built a 3-up lead. Then it was Niemann's turn to make mistakes as his three straight bogeys from Nos. 14-16 opened the door for Watson to square the match. Watson bogeyed the 17th but birdied 18 for the tie.

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THE OVERVIEW Inspired by the success of another former anchor putter, Keegan Bradley ended a victory drought of his own and followed PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson into the winner’s circle. Bradley’s win at the BMW Championship, where he beat FedExCup champion Justin Rose in a playoff, was his first since the 2012 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Fittingly, he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Bradley, 32, also returned to the TOUR Championship for the first time in five years. He had fallen as low as 103rd in the FedExCup in 2016. “It’s tough to go from being on Ryder Cup teams, being on Presidents Cup teams to outside the top 100 in the world,â€� he said. “That was difficult. I had to really sit down with my coach, Darren May, and we put a schedule together. We worked hard to get back to this spot.â€� Bradley, once of the TOUR’s young stars and the 2011 Rookie of the Year, became both a husband and father in the lengthy span between victories. That made his BMW win that much more special. He had to fight back tears as he saw his wife Jillian and infant son Logan by the 18th green. “I’ve won before, and I win and I finish, and I go home, just me,â€� he said, “and now I get to go back and we get to have fun and enjoy it together, and it’s just a completely different experience.â€� There were times Bradley wondered if he would ever win again. His victory at the BMW Championship was worth the wait. — By Sean Martin Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 47th Playoff appearances: 8 TOUR Championship appearances: 4 Best FedExCup result: Finished 8th in 2018. SHOTLINK FUN FACT Keegan Bradley made a huge improvement in his Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green performance last season, finished second on the PGA TOUR in that category after ranking 80th the previous season. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Keegan Bradley in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Bradley is the rare player who has emphasized accuracy over distance in recent years. From 2011-15, he was in the top 20 in driving distance and outside the top 50 in driving accuracy. Those numbers flipped in 2018. He was 65th in driving distance and 15th in driving accuracy. Hitting more fairways allows his stellar iron play to shine. He was second in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green last season. “The smash and gouge is not my game,â€� Bradley said. “That works for a lot of guys, but if I’m missing fairways, I’m not going to be up on the leaderboard.â€� – By Sean Martin FANTASY INSIDER: In his ninth season on the PGA TOUR, the 32-year-old won’t have to worry about chasing exemptions into any tournament again for a while. Combining that level of comfort with what has to be a fresh appreciation for its value at this stage of his career (i.e. his prime), he’s poised to connect several seasons of something special. Mitigating any residual doubt is that he loves to play often. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Bradley, with a unique putting style, also has a unique putter. The St. Johns University graduate has custom Red Storm paint on his Odyssey Works 1W Armlock putter, with Works graphics and platinum paint on the sole, and a White Hot face insert. He also had a black-red-black putting grip to match. As for the rest of the Srixon-staffers mixed bag, he has a TaylorMade M2 201 driver (Graphite Design AD-IZ 6X shaft), a TaylorMade M4 HL fairway wood, a Callaway Apex 3 hybrid, Srixon irons (Z-U45, Z-745 and Z-945), Cleveland RTX-3 wedges, and he plays a Srixon Z-Star XV golf ball. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: It’s gotta be the shoes! When you think about Keegan’s style, his custom Jordans are likely the first things to come to mind. Whether you are down with the J’s on the course or not, you can’t deny that Bradley has created a signature look for himself. In the apparel department, he’s been pairing the fresh kicks with TravisMathew’s cool and casual threads. The SoCal brand’s modern looks are a perfect fit for Keegan’s personal style. — By Greg Monteforte

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Jordan Spieth is not known to tinker with his equipment much, but he’s made a few significant changes in the past two weeks. Ahead of the 2019 PGA Championship, Spieth switched out of his Titleist 915F fairway wood, which he’s used for about 4 years, into a new Titleist TS2 fairway wood. Then this week at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge, Spieth switched out of the driver shaft that he’d been using in his Titleist TS3 driver throughout 2019, into a new Fujikura Ventus 6X shaft; he’s still using the same Titleist TS3 driver head model, at 10.5 degrees. Related: DJ using a Fujikura Ventus prototype shaft | Bettinardi’s military inspired putters | Equipment Q&A: Ping designer Marty Jertson Coming into the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge, Jordan Spieth was ranked 204 on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy off the tee, hitting just 51.94 percent of fairways. The Ventus shaft Spieth changed into, however, is designed to reduce twisting at impact with a multi-material bias core, which Fujikura calls “VeloCore,â€� or “Velocity at its Core.â€� The core of the shaft is made with Pitch 70 Ton carbon fiber material that’s “three times stiffer than your standard mod,â€� according to Fujikura’s Fitting and TOUR representative Marshall Thompson. Back in February, PGATOUR.COM went in-depth with Thompson about the shaft, and Thompson said that “upwards of 80-to-90 percent of people had an easier time hitting the center of the faceâ€� with the Ventus shaft, due its twist reduction qualities through impact. According to Fujikura, Spieth also found the center of the face more often using the Ventus shaft. Ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Fujikura said: “The increased tip stiffness moved his toe impact locations to more center face with Ventus. His ball speed was similar at 170-172 (mph), but the misses were better so he decided to put it in play.â€� Although Spieth shot 65 (5-under) in the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Thursday, he hit just half of his fairways, missing 6-of-his-7 missed fairway to the left.   “I still had some scar tissue on shots today where I’ve had some foul balls to the right this year where that’s been my miss,â€� Spieth told PGATOUR.COM. “… I played away from that shot because of the potential of what’s been there this year.â€� If Spieth can heal the mental scar tissue off the tee and continue hitting the center of the face more often with his new driver setup, his driving accuracy could begin trending up.

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