Golf: Bottom seed bumps top out of contest

South African Ernie Els waves to the gallery after defeating Luke Donald on the 14th hole during...
South African Ernie Els waves to the gallery after defeating Luke Donald on the 14th hole during the first round of the WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championships in Marana, Arizona, yesterday. Photo by Reuters.
Top seed Luke Donald crashed out of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship yesterday, losing 5 and 4 to late entry Ernie Els, while Tiger Woods scraped through into the second round.

Once again the elite World Golf Championships event lived up to its reputation for wild unpredictability and there were 15 upsets from the 32 matches at Dove Mountain's Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

Donald won last year's title with an imperious display but he struggled against South African Els as the heavily contoured greens ran fast and firm.

Triple major winner Els made the most of an error-prone performance by the British world No1 and sealed victory when he sank a 3m birdie putt at the par-four 14th.

"I'm not sure where to start," a subdued Donald told reporters. "I just didn't play very well. It's disappointing.

"I gave away too many holes and made too many mistakes." The lowest-ranked player in the elite field of 64, former world No1 Els gained a spot at Dove Mountain when Phil Mickelson withdrew.

"There's always hype when the No1 player is playing the No64 seed," said Els. "... I think he didn't want to play me and I sure as hell didn't want to play him in the first round, but that's the way it worked out."

While three-time winner Woods battled through one up against Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Charl Schwartzel and Bae Sang-moon won their opening matches in comfort.

Masters champion Schwartzel, of South Africa, eased past American Gary Woodland 4 and 2 and South Korean Bae upset Britain's Ian Poulter, the 2010 champion, 4 and 3.

Woods was two down to Fernandez-Castano after two holes but finally ended a wildly fluctuating encounter with a 2.4m par putt at the 18th.

"We both made our share of mistakes, there's no doubt about that, but somehow I was able to move on," Woods said.

Earlier, South Korean Yang Yong-eun beat Graeme McDowell 2 and 1 and Dustin Johnson scraped past fellow American Jim Furyk after 20 holes.

Yang, who became the first Asian male to win a major with his victory at the 2009 PGA Championship, produced sizzling form with seven birdies.

Soon after his win, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa came from three down after 13 holes to beat American Bill Haas one up before Paul Lawrie edged fellow Briton Justin Rose by the same margin.

 

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