Big hitting Dustin Johnson was the first contestant to go through to Friday's third round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Champion - and not because he teed off first.


Rather it was because he needed only 13 holes to whip Italian Francesco Molinari 7&5 in Thursday's second round at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club at Marana near Tukson in Arizona desert country.

Molinari, who had been taken to 20 holes by Thomas Bjorn in the first round on Wednesday, looked decidedly jaded as against a more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Johnson, who also needed an extra hole to beat Jim Furyk in the first round, but who came out with all guns blazing on Thursday and shot six sparkling birdies in his
win.

The early part of Thursday's second round clearly belonged to the American contingent in the field.

South African Louis Oosthuizen made a good fight of his tussle with Steve Stricker, currently the USA's highest World ranked golfer at No 5 and a former winner of the WGC Match Play, but in the end went out when Stricker won the final hole.

A third American, Hunter Mahan, was another of the earliest winners to go through to round three, in his case with a comprehensive 5&3 Katana SNIPER Hi 4WD Driver Limited Edition 2000 over South Korea's YE Yang, the 2009 PGA Champion.

Yang was the man who looked so accomplished in Thursday's first round when he sent packing Northern Ireland's Graham McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, in spite of the fact that McDowell shot a "dozen or so birdies"