Rory McIlroy believes new coach Pete Cowen the man who can give him the “feels” he needs to work hard and get back to winning ways.

After being thrashed 6&5 by Ian Poulter on day one in the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play, the world No 11 cruised to a facile 4& 3 win over Lanto Griffin to keep his hopes of progressing to the last 16 alive.

“It's a very difficult game at times, and I feel like it's testing me a little more than it has done in the last few years,” said McIlroy, who must beat Cameron Smith today and hope Poulter, who beat Smith 1 up, loses to Griffin so he can force a playoff.

“I feel the only way to get through it is to put your head down and work on the right things and trust the process of maybe put in the hard work, and my dad always said, you get out of it what you put into it.”

As for his change of coach, he reckons Cowen is the man he needs right now, given they’ve known each other since he was 13.

“Yeah, so I think I need to preface it with Pete and I have known each other since I was 13 years old, so it's not as if this is a new relationship. Pete and I have known each other forever. He's worked with a lot of players that I've been close with over the years, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood. I just felt like it was a natural fit in terms of Pete knows my goal.

“He's seen me grow up swinging the golf club. I don't think he has any preconceived ideas in his head of how I should swing or -- and I think he puts -- with what I'm struggling with in my swing at the minute, I think his coaching philosophy puts an emphasis on that in terms of getting structure in the right arm and getting that supported at the top, and I just felt like he maybe had some ideas and had maybe a little more knowledge on that part of the golf swing than what I currently had, and that's the reason that I -- and all the other stuff, all the great players he's worked with. His short game expertise is unbelievable, as well, and I think just picking up those little nuggets from him is only going to help in the long run.”

Asked if Bannon would remain involved, he said: “Yeah, Michael is like a second dad to me, so it's not as if -- Michael and I's relationship and, I guess, agreement is still the same. It's just the fact that I haven't been able to see him as much recently, and then the times that I have, because there hasn't been much continuity there, it feels like it just got a bit -- every time we saw each other it was almost like we were trying to do too much, so it felt like -- not a rebuild, but it just felt like, okay, where I think Pete is out on TOUR enough, as well, to sort of give me maybe feels that I can play with and then stuff that I can work on on the range, because as everyone knows, it's so hard to go out on the golf course and think so much about your golf swing. You need to be able to let that go and just be able to play shots. But if you have a couple little feels in there, it can help, and that's sort of the reason that I've went down this road.”

As for his match, McIlroy started birdie-par-par and found himself 3-up.

“Obviously winning the match today keeps me in the tournament and gives me a hope for tomorrow. Obviously it looks like Cam and I, whoever wins that match, Lanto is going to have to do a favour and beat Poults. But yeah, it was good.

“I didn't play that badly. I hit a couple of destructive shots yesterday, but overall both of us played well, deserved to win the match, but I didn't feel -- the scoreline didn't sort of match up with how I felt like I played. And then the same thing today. I played solid. Lanto didn't have his best stuff, but I played solid and kept it in play and holed some good putts when it mattered. Yeah, just happy to be still in with a hope.”

Shane Lowry was two up on Jon Rahm through four holes before the Spaniard when on a blitz around the turn, winning the fifth, seventh, ninth, 10th and 12th to go three up.

Lowry responded by winning three of the next five holes to go to the 18th 1-down but he couldn’t make a 12 footer for birdie and conceded to lose 2-down and go out of the championship.

“Played really good golf,” a relieved Rahm said. “I just wish I could have played 16 a little bit better, maybe put more pressure on him, but hey, he made a heck of a run at the end, man. I hit the shots I needed, just was maybe a little bit too passive on 16 and 17. But luckily I had a bit of a cushion.”

Pádraig Harrington, meanwhile, produced a blistering back nine to scorch into contention for the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.

The European Ryder Cup captain (49) put a one-over front nine behind him by racking up four birdies in a homeward 32 for a 69 that left him tied 10th, just three shots behind Germany's Stephan Jaeger with Graeme McDowell tied 19th after a 70 and Seamus Power tied 55th after a 72.

On the LPGA Tour, Stephanie was beaming at her fiancé after she fired five birdies in a four-under 68 to lie just a shot off the lead in the Kia Classic in California.

The Jordanstown star (29) got engaged to Kyle Kallan last year, but they have also teamed up on the course as a player-caddie duo.

"It's been really nice," said Meadow, who started birdie-bogey before following a hat-trick of birdies from the sixth with another at the 14th to share second with England's Mel Reid just a shot behind South Korea's Hyo Joo Kim as Leona Maguire posted a level par 72 to share 34th.

"So far, it's been a great team, and I'm just enjoying having someone really have my back. Obviously, normal caddies do, too, but he's got a little more skin in the game, I guess."

On the European Tour, Jonathan Caldwell carded a one-under 70 that left him tied 27th on 10-under par in the Kenya Savannah Classic, seven shots behind last week’s Kenya Open winner Justin Harding but just four shots behind the six-strong group tied for second.

Cormac Sharvin was tied for 54th on six-under after a one-under 70 as Harding (35) carded a five-under 66 to lead by three shots on 17-under par in his bid to win back-to-back events for the third time in his career.