At least there's still a chance for Tiger Woods and David Duval to meet in the finals of the Match Play Championship.

All week long, players from No. 1 to No. 64 have said there would be no such thing as an upset, not in a sport as unpredictable as golf in a format as fickle as match play.

That didn't make Wednesday at La Costa Resort any less surprising when Woods and Duval, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, were the only players among the top seven in the world to get past the first round.

"It feels like I missed the cut," Ernie Els said after losing 1-up to Paul Azinger.

Mark O'Meara can get an early start on the slopes of Utah. Maybe Davis Love III still had time to catch that red-eye back to Georgia. Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood will have plenty of time to contemplate their early exit on their way back to Britain.

"Did all those people lose today?" Duval asked.

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.

The first day of the inaugural Match Play Championship was everything it was advertised to be -- more drama in one day than is usually found in four rounds of stroke play, and stunning results that sent some of the best players packing.

Woods was not among them. He breezed to a 4 and 3 victory over Nick Faldo, who continues to look more like a player struggling to keep his card than a three-time Masters and Open champion.

"I'm not going to feel sorry for him," Woods said. "He's had his chances to win tournaments."

Half of the top 64 players in the world won't get another chance this week to play for the $1 million first prize.

"Certainly, I'm happy to have progressed past the first day of golf," Duval said after a 2 and 1 victory over Stephen Leaney.

One by one, the five players seeded behind Woods and Duval left La Costa in a state of shock, taking their $25,000 as a consolation prize.

O'Meara, the Masters and Open champion and PGA Tour player of the year, fell behind early and went down in a heap to Michael Bradley 4 and 2.

"He made no mistakes today, and that's key in match play," O'Meara said.

• Love missed 15-foot birdie putts on the final two holes to lose 1-up to Steve Pate.

• Westwood, who has won as often on the European tour as Duval has won in America, was blown out by Eduardo Romero of Argentina, 3 and 2.

• Montgomerie, again suffering from poor putting, lost three of the first seven holes in a 5 and 3 loss to hometown favorite Craig Stadler.

• Els, the two-time U.S. Open champion coming off a victory last week in Los Angeles, never led in his match against Paul Azinger and lost 1-up when his drive on the 18th caught a bad lie in the rough.

"For me to beat him, it took him to be a little off," Azinger said. "And he was a little off today."

Els wasn't the only one. Of the top 32 seeds in the field, 18 failed to advance to the second round and will have to settle for a last-place check of $25,000. The survivors included Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Justin Leonard, Vijay Singh and Nick Price.

"If you put No. 64 next to No. 1, it visually creates a wider gap than there actually is," said Duval, who was 5-under through 17 holes.

Woods against Faldo looked plenty wide.

Woods, playing some of his best golf since winning the Masters two years ago, had his game face on as soon as he walked to the first tee, his head bowed in concentration in the minutes before the starter announced his match with Faldo.

Faldo hit his first drive to the right into an awkward spot in the bunker, and a man in the gallery yelled out, "Ask him for strokes, Nick!"

Faldo certainly could have used them. Woods won the first hole without even having to putt, after Faldo went bunker to bunker and Woods hit a wedge in to 8 feet. Faldo evened the match at the third hole, but Woods slowly and methodically put him away with a combination of good putting, few mistakes and simply letting Faldo beat himself.

"I was just trying to put a lot of pressure on him," Woods said.

Woods took control of the match with a wedge to 8 feet for birdie on No. 9, and an 8-iron into a foot at No. 10 that halved the hole and let Faldo know he would have to play major championship golf to have any chance.

He didn't, losing the match on the 15th hole. Though the hole before Faldo managed to miss the green of the par 3 by about 130 yards, Woods having missed the green right Faldo pulled his tee shot straight left into a tree. He even had the embarrassment of having to recross the creek as he was told that his ball hadn't even made it that far, there was then further delay while he waited for his caddy to pace a yardage from the tee box.

"I beat a great champion, even though he didn't play his best," Woods said.

Faldo wasn't the only one who struggled in a format that doesn't allow for a bad day. Westwood and Montgomerie were the captains of a sinking ship for Europe, which has won the last two Ryder Cups but has always been considered the underdogs in Sunday singles matches.

Of the nine players on Europe's winning team at Valderrama, only Bernhard Langer, José Maria Olazábal and Thomas Bjørn will be around to play Thursday.

"I don't think they're at a disadvantage here," Stadler said. "They got beat. And they've got a long flight home."

Worse yet, an early flight home.