YORK’S swing commander Simon Dyson failed to find his groove to suffer a first round exit in the opening World Golf Championships event, writes Tony Kelly.

Dyson lost 4 and 3 to Australia’s John Senden in the Accenture WGC match-play championship at the Ritz-Carlton course in the Dove Mountain resort in Arizona.

The world number 28 was up against it from the very outset of the $8½ million tournament.

Senden took the first two holes and though Dyson won the third with a par three, Senden nabbed the fourth and fifth holes.

By the 11th hole Dyson trailed by five shots, his Australian opponent collecting a further brace of shots on holes eight and 11.

Though the Malton & Norton Golf Club star retrieved a shot on the 13th, a missed eight-foot birdie putt on the par-four 15th signalled his early exit.

In the same half of the draw, there was a shock defeat for fellow Brit and the 2010 Accenture champion Ian Poulter.

He was also beaten 4 and 3 by South Korea’s Bae Sang-Moon.

Another British casualty was Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, a 2 and 1 loser to another Korean, Y E Yang.