Els & Goosen casulaties on Day One

Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, both among the top five golfers in the world, lost in the first round of the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship, while No. 1 Tiger Woods won.

Els, No. 2 in the official world rankings, lost to Phil Tataurangi on the 20th hole, and No. 5 Goosen was beaten by Jay Haas 4 and 3.

Woods defeated Carl Pettersson 2 and 1, while No. 3 Phil Mickelson -- the other top seed -- beat Robert Karlsson 1-up.

Sergio Garcia, No. 6 in the world rankings, lost to defending champion Kevin Sutherland 3 and 1 after leading by three holes with six to play. Chris DiMarco and Colin Montgomerie -- both in the top 16 -- also lost today.

In all, 14 of 32 matches were won by lower-seeded players at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. Vijay Singh, No. 4 in the world rankings, withdrew on Monday because of injury.

The tournament is one of the few on golf's top tours using a match-play format, where players compete with each other to win individual holes. The competitor with the most holes wins the match. Most professional tournaments are in stroke-play format, where the lowest score wins.

Els, winner of four of the five tournaments he'd played this year, didn't have a lead against Tataurangi until the 17th hole.

However, Tataurangi, who joined the field after Nick Faldo withdrew because of injury on Friday, sank a 25-foot birdie putt to win the 18th hole and force a sudden-death playoff. Tataurangi then birdied the second extra hole for the right to face Peter Lonard in tomorrow's second round.

``I'm 66th in the world and Ernie is winning everything that he's looking at right now, yet over 18 holes, anyone can compete,'' Tataurangi said.

Goosen also never led against Haas. With the match all-square through the first seven holes, Haas won five of the next eight to close out Goosen with three holes left.

Woods Advances

Woods, the tournament's top seed in each of the four times its been played at La Costa, twice went 1-down in the first four holes against Pettersson, but won the sixth and seventh to take the lead for good. He doubled his lead with a win at No. 13.

``I had no bogeys, three birdies and didn't really put myself in any danger of making bogey at all today,'' said Woods, who'll face K.J. Choi tomorrow. ``I hit a lot of fairways and just tried to keep the ball on the greens today, because that was a chore.''

Woods lost in the first round last year, along with fellow top-three seeds Mickelson and David Duval. The tournament has never had a champion seeded higher than 19th in its four-year history. Woods was the runner-up to Darren Clarke in 2000.

Mickelson went ahead of Karlsson on the 17th hole with a par and Karlsson's bogey, then won the match after both made par on the 18th. He'll face Brad Faxon tomorrow.

DiMarco lost to Toshi Izawa 2 and 1, while Montgomerie fell to Alex Cejka 4 and 2. Duval was beaten by Justin Rose on the second extra hole after rallying from a 2-down deficit through 15 holes.

In the longest match in tournament history, Mike Weir -- who won collected his second win of the season at last week's Nissan Open -- defeated Loren Roberts on the eighth extra hole.

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