American Johnson, the world number one and top seed for the tournament, which he won previously in 2017, started his Group One campaign with a 2-and-1 win against fellow American Adam Long.

Group Two features defending champion Kisner of the United States, with the 34^th seed starting his title defence with a 2-and-1 victory against South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen.

The group’s other match saw second seed Justin Thomas beaten as he lost 3-and-2 to fellow American Matt Kuchar.

Third seed Jon Rahm was a narrow winner in Group Three as the Spaniard beat Sebastian Munoz of Colombia by one hole.

In Group Four, fourth seed Collin Morikawa could only manage a tie with fellow American JT Poston.

Fifth seed Bryson DeChambeau of the US was beaten in his opening Group Five match in the shock of the day by 58^th seed Antoine Rozner, with the Frenchman recording a surprising two-up win.

DeChambeau now sits bottom of the group after the match between England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Kim Si-woo of South Korea was halved.

Among the one-sided matches was the game between Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who won this event in 2015, and England’s Ian Poulter.

Poulter won 6-and-5 during a match that was notable for McIlroy hitting a wayward tee shot on the fifth hole into a swimming pool located in a nearby garden.

Meanwhile, a closer contest saw two Americans, seventh seed Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson, play out a match that ended halved.

Players are divided into 16 groups of four for the tournament, and play each player in their group, earning a point for a win, half a point for a tie and no points for a defeat.

The 16 group winners will make it through to the next stage of the tournament, the round of 16, when action moves to a knockout format.