Harrington, Garcia exit after returning Woods wins

MARANA, Arizona: Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia fell by the wayside in Wednesday's opening round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship while Tiger Woods made a triumphant start on his PGA Tour return.

Harrington, winner of three of the last six majors, lost by a hole to American Pat Perez and Spanish world No 2 Garcia went down by the same margin to South African Charl Schwartzel.

Top-seeded Woods, back in action after an eight-month absence due to knee injury, thrilled a huge gallery on a sun-baked day at Dove Mountain's Ritz-Carlton Golf Club by beating Australian Brendan Jones 3&2.