Woods had to fight all the way to beat Spaniard

Els, a sweet-swinging, three-time major winner whose putting problems have sent him tumbling out of your top 50 in the World rankings, took benefit of Donald's poor form and error-prone performance to wrap things up since the 14th hole.

"I'm unclear where to start," said a visibly disappointed Donald, that is only the third top seed to reduce inside event's opening round. "I just didn't play perfectly. It's disappointing.

"I gave away way too many holes and made way too many Titleist 910F-D Fairway Wood mistakes. You can not do that in match play against anyone, not to say Ernie."

"There's always hype in the event the No. 1 player is playing no. 64 seed," said Els. "But Luke and that i took it for what it was.

"I think he do not think he wanted to play me and I sure as hell didn't need to play him in the first round, that is operate exercised."

While three-time Accenture Match Play winner Woods was required to fight all the way to beat Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 1-up after beginning by losing Taylormade Burner 2.0 irons the initial two holes, Charl Schwartzel and Bae Sang-moon won their opening matches almost as comfortably as Els.

Schwartzel, the reigning Masters champion, eased past big-hitting American Gary Woodland 4&2 and unheralded South Korean Bae upset Britain's Ian Poulter, this years Match Play champion, 4&3.

This while World No 3 Lee Westwood was beating Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts 3&1 and World No 4 German Martin Kaymer was thumping Australian discount golf clubs left-hander Greg Chalmers 4&2.to participate the 32 winners who advanced to Thursday's second round.