Tiger Woods impressed in his much-anticipated comeback from an eight-month injury lay-off to overcome a front-nine wobble and win his opening match at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship today.
Woods, playing Australian Brendan Jones in the first round of the 64-man event at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, was playing for the first time since last June when he won the US Open before needing reconstructive knee surgery and recorded a 3&2 win.
"I felt good," Woods said. "I got off to a quick start and that helps. I got off some good shots early, had some loose irons there in the middle part of the round but got back and thought I had a good day, except for those couple of loose irons."
Woods, the defending champion, said he had felt no adverse reaction from his rehabilitated left knee.
"It felt good," he said. "I felt for sure it would be a little bit more stiff than it was.
"I'm sure it will be a little bit stiff later but ice and elevate and I'll be good to go tomorrow."
The world number one had started in determined fashion and to a huge roar from the packed stands around the first tee box as he played a three-wood down the 460-yard par-four opening hole on the way to a birdie.
He was quickly two up after Jones conceded the second but then tailed off as both players made bogeys at the third and fifth.
Woods bogeyed the par-four seventh as Jones parred but was quickly back in control with a birdie at the eighth and he forged ahead by winning the 12th and 13th holes.
There was a brief rally from Jones, who eagled the par-four 15th but Woods completed his win at the 16th.
Woods said it had felt like he had not been away from the fairways.
"I said to Stevie (Williams, his caddie), 'it feels like we haven't been gone'. It was business as usual," he added.
"I thought I'd be a little more nervous than that but when it comes right down to it it's about placement so I just kind of went back to all the basics."
Northern Ireland teenager Rory McIlroy defeated South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen 2&1 in his first outing as a professional in the United States.
The Dubai Desert Classic winner now faces US Ryder Cup star Hunter Mahan in the second round with Woods a potential opponent in round three.
Padraig Harrington, the Open and US PGA champion, was an early casualty as the top seed in his bracket, going out to American Pat Perez.
Harrington had trailed by two with three to play before sending in an 18-foot putt at the par-three 16th to win the hole.
But the gap was too great to overcome as Perez won one up.
Oliver Wilson set up a second-round meeting with Ryder Cup foe Anthony Kim with an upset victory on a great day for the English contingent.
Wilson delivered a 3&1 defeat to Korea's KJ Choi, a player 25 places ahead of him in the world rankings, while Kim was the first player into the next round when he mopped up a resounding victory over Chinese Taipei's Lin Wen-tang, 7&5.
Starting the good day for the English was Lee Westwood, who moved into the second round with a bogey-free, five-birdie 2&1 win over Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng in the opening match of the first round.
Westwood now meets last year's beaten finalist Stewart Cink, who needed 19 holes to defeat Richard Sterne of South Africa.
Mickelson survived a late rally from Angel Cabrera to beat the Argentine on the 19th hole and set up a meeting with Zach Johnson, who defeated Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell 3&1, while Luke Donald beat Ben Curtis on the 19th hole.
Paul Casey defeated Aaron Baddeley of Australia one up to progress to a match with another Aussie, Matt Goggin, who scored an upset one-up win over Kenny Perry.
Ian Poulter won 4&3 over Jeev Milka Singh but Sergio Garcia lost the last three holes to go down to Charl Schwartzel.
Justin Rose, whose wife Kate gave birth to baby Leo on Saturday, was beaten one up by American Boo Weekley but Ross Fisher made it six out of seven wins for the English when he beat Robert Allenby of Australia one up.
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