Irish golfer Padraig Harrington, the highest ranked European in the Accenture world match play championship, has failed to survive the opening round for the second year running in Melbourne. The Dubliner seeded the 10th and went out to American Steve Striker two and one. Earlier, Paul McGinley also crashed out by the same margin to Garry Orr.

Harrington came back from losing the first two holes to level by the eighth, but after hitting the better tee shot at the 168-yard ninth, he saw Stricker make a 20-footer and then missed his own 14-foot birdie attempt for a half. Harrington later took the 15th with a par four, but off a carved drive down the 17th, Stricker got the par he needed to go through by chipping to four feet.