Reed dumps Spieth out, Harman accounts for McIlroy

Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth were two of the big names who failed to make the weekend at Austin Country Club.

Patrick Reed knocked Ryder Cup partner Jordan Spieth out of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and Rory McIlroy also made an early exit on Friday.

Reed and Spieth went into their final Group 4 match knowing a victory would see them through to the Round of 16 and it was the former who advanced with a two and one win at Austin Country Club.

World number 23 Reed, who secured top-10 finishes in his last two events, never trailed his fellow American, who he has also teamed up with in the Presidents Cup.

Reed made it three wins out of three in style, holing a mammoth putt from off the 17th green to end Spieth's hopes of a claiming a first title of the year.

Spieth made a poor start, double-bogeying the first two holes after losing balls to find himself two down before halving the deficit with a birdie at the fifth.

A Spieth bogey at the eighth restored Reed's two-hole advantage, but that was completely erased by successive birdies from the Texan on the ninth and 10th.

But Spieth bogeyed the par-three 11th to hand the lead back to Reed, who stretched the gap with a gain on the 13th and then found himself three up after Spieth missed from six feet on the 15th.

Spieth birdied 16 to trail by two, but Reed wrapped it up with a hole to spare with a superbly judged putt from 40 feet.

Brian Harman had already earlier dumped McIlroy, winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend, out with a resounding 5 and 3 Group 6 success in Texas

Justin Thomas maintained his perfect record for the week to qualify from Group 2, easing to a seven and five win over Francesco Molinari, while Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Alex Noren, Charles Howell III and Kiradech Aphibarnrat also qualified with 100 per cent records.

A half for Cameron Smith against Yusaku Miyazato sealed the Australian's progress - and a place in the Masters - but his compatriot Jason Day was dumped out by Louis Oosthuizen, who went on to defeat Jason Dufner in a play-off.

Bubba Watson halved his final group match with Julian Suri to march on, while Tyrrell Hatton and Kyle Stanley progressed with play-off wins over Brendan Steele and Paul Casey respectively.

Si Woo Kim and Matt Kuchar are also through to the last 16