At the end of Day 1 of the Volvo World Matchplay at the London Club, the opening day headines went to two of Paul McGinley’s Ryder Cup heroes.

Defending Champion Graeme McDowell and his partner at Gleneagles Victor Dubuisson began their campaigns with 3&2 victories over Alexander Levy and Pablo Larrazabal, whilst Irishman Shane Lowry secured a matching result over Ryder Cup rookie Stephen Gallagher.

For McDowell his victory was never really in doubt as after winning the fourth and the fifth, the Champion then won three out of four holes either side of the turn to lead by four and despite Levy pulling one back at the 13th, it was as close as the Frenchman got.

Dubuisson meanwhile had a routine win over Larrazabal as the Spaniard won only one hole – a French concession on the par four tenth – the Frenchman won the 3rd, 6th, 7th and 11th, and the game then ended with five successive pars and the game ended on the 16th.

For Gallagher, his bad luck from Gleneagles continued as he lost the first and sixth to go two down before pulling one back at the 8th. The two players then exchanged holes – Lowry then went back to two up by birdieing 11, before Gallagher birdied the par three 12th to cut the lead again, but that’s as close as the Scotsman got and Irish birdies then at 14 and 16 sealed Lowry’s win.

The number one seed for the competition (and another Ryder Cup hero) Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was taken the distance by George Coetzee as the South African pared 18 to secure a half in the closest game of the day. Coetzee birdied the second only for Stenson to draw level at the sixth. The four holes around the turn were then shared before the Swede birdie 2 at the par three 14th put him on the verge of the points only for Coetzee to birdie the last and secure the half.

Two other games played the 18th as despite the on course support of former Chelsea striker Gianfranco Zola, Francisco Molinari lost by two holes to Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee. Last year’s runner up was never behind and found himself two up with two to play only to lose 17 to a par before a birdie at 18 sealed a two hole win.

One other game went the distance down the 18th as Joost Luiten beat Finland’s Mikko Ilonen by one hole. The Finn will be disappointed not to have gotten something out of this close encounter especially as his only lead of the day was when he won the par three 14th with a par before Luiten won 15 and 16 and held his nerve going down the last to clinch the win.

The remaining two games both ended in surprise defeats for two more involved at Gleneagles. Welshman Jamie Donaldson, who won the point that secured the Cup went down 2&1 to Paul Casey, whilst in perhaps the upset of the day, American Patrick Reed lost by the same score to Sweden’s Jonas Blixt.

Casey the 2006 winner of this event raced into a three hole lead after six – a lead which he held until the 11th when Donaldson won his first of the day, and prompted a Welsh revival as he squared the match by winning 13 and 14. Casey though was not to be denied and birdies at 15 and 17 saw a terrific match go his way.

Blixt and Reed served up the tightest battle of the day, with the Swede winning the only hole won of the front nine – a birdie three winning the seventh with the other eight holes halved – before the match swayed from one way to another on the back nine. The players exchanged holes 10 and 11, and Reed will be disappointed that he went two down losing the 12th to a par 3. The 13th was then halved before Reed won the 14th with a par only for Blixt to regain what this time was to prove a two hole cushion by winning 15.

Thursday’s highlights include Dubuisson taking on Lowry, Stenson against Molinari and Reed against Casey…