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Rory McIlroy said his iron play let him down as suffered a first-round defeat at the World Matchplay Championship, but he denied his loss had anything to do with his switch to new Nike clubs.
Shane Lowry, an old friend of the Northern Irishman from their amateur days, defeated McIlroy 1-up with the aid of chip-ins at the 11th and 12th holes at Dove Mountain, and an eagle on the par-five 13th, where he hit a fairway wood from 258 yards to five feet.
"I didn't make enough birdies in the end," said McIlroy, who missed the cut at the European Tour event in Abu Dhabi last month in his only other start this season.
"Shane had a nice little stretch around part of the back nine. I hung in there, but I just didn't do enough."
While McIlroy bemoaned his iron play, he did not seem to think it had to do with his highly publicised switch to Nike equipment.
"I've just been missing a lot of them right.... I think it's more a timing thing than anything else," he said.
"I felt like I drew the ball really well," he added. "I hit the ball well off the tee. I just need to take advantage of the driving I've been doing."
While Lowry, the 64th-seed in the 64-man field, said he knew "deep down" that he could beat McIlroy, he admitted he was nervous playing the first few holes despite their friendship.
"It was much easier for me to play against Rory than it would have been playing against Tiger (Woods), purely because I just know Rory so well," said Lowry, who had dinner with McIlroy earlier in the week. "It was quite easy that way, but still quite nerve-wracking on the first tee."
Despite their friendship, there was little small talk as the match progressed.
"There wasn't that much chatter," McIlroy said. "We were kind of chatting the first few holes and then it was getting pretty tight around the turn, and the back nine there wasn't much talk out there."
Lowry added: "I tried to keep it that way. I said to my caddie, walking down 11 or 12, 'He's not liking this one bit.'
"He's the one under pressure, I've got nothing to lose, so let's have a go from here."
Moments after McIlroy's exit, Charles Howell III beat the second-seeded Woods on the 17th hole. Howell nearly holed a wedge for birdie on the 16th and made a 25-foot birdie on the 16th to seize control.
"I had nothing to lose," said Howell, who started the year outside the top 100 in the world and hasn't qualified for the World Matchplay in five years. "In this format, match play is crazy. He's Tiger Woods. I was lucky to hang in there."
The final matches were played in near darkness, and they could have stopped after 15 holes. Woods wanted to play on, even though Howell had the momentum. Woods was 2 under for the day, and neither of them made a bogey.
"We both played well," Woods said. "He made a couple of more birdies than I did. He played well, and he's advancing."
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