Woods just scrapes through first round

World number one Tiger Woods recovered from one down with two holes to play to defeat John Rollins one up in the first round of the WGC-World Match Play Championship at La Costa Resort & Spa on Wednesday.

Fiji's Vijay Singh, the world number two, swept past Japan's Shingo Katayama 5 and 3 while world number four Mike Weir of Canada put out Rich Beem 3 and 2.

Woods made a bad start with a bogey at the first hole but he hit back to square the match with Rollins, who only gained a place in the field when world number three Ernie Els withdrew for family reasons, thanks to an eagle at the third.

Rollins, though, moved into a two-hole lead when he birdied the par-three 12th. But he buckled under the pressure, making bogeys at three of the last six while Woods birdied the last two.

"It was tough because I made some mistakes out there," Woods told reporters. "John played poorly at the beginning and he kept making mistakes, kept driving it poorly."

Woods sank a 16-footer for birdie at the par-five 18th to clinch victory as his opponent bogeyed for the second hole in a row.

With only one win on the PGA Tour, at the 2002 Canadian Open, Rollins was a long shot to beat Woods.

"This was my first time playing with Tiger and it wasn't the showing I wanted in terms of the way either one of us played," Rollins said.

"I was looking forward to the match and I just wish that I could have played a little bit better early in the match and it may have been a different result in the end."

Woods will now face 24-year-old South African Trevor Immelman, who defeated Japan's Shigeki Maruyama 2 and 1.

"He's one of the nicest kids out there and I'm looking forward to playing with him," Woods said of Immelman.

"He's solid. He's made a lot of improvements, worked pretty hard."

Weir now plays Australia's Stephen Leaney, who defeated Fred Funk one up. Singh will meet Jerry Kelly, who put out Spain's Sergio Garcia one up.

World number seven Retief Goosen of South Africa was beaten 2 and 1 by John Huston.

U.S. PGA champion Shaun Micheel had to go to the 21st hole before squeezing past Britain's Paul Casey while Colin Montgomerie finally overcame Nick Price of Zimbabwe at the 20th hole.

Montgomerie's European Ryder Cup team mate Darren Clarke needed 25 holes to dismiss the challenge of Eduardo Romero of Argentina.

British Open champion Ben Curtis beat Charles Howell III two up. Davis Love III knocked out Briny Baird two up and Phil Mickelson triumphed 3 and 1 over Britain's Lee Westwood.

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