Montgomerie is No Match for Els As Favourites Let Down the Sponsors

Uncertainty has sustained the appeal of the World Match Play Championship for more than 40 years, but it will forever play havoc with the hopes and dreams of those corporate cash machines who have made this the richest prize in golf.

Last year Tiger Woods was knocked out in the first round by the underwhelming Shaun Micheel, and yesterday the list of losers featured Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie - or to put it another way, just about everybody the tournament sponsors wanted to see progress towards the weekend.

Montgomerie's departure was entirely predictable given that he was matched with Ernie Els, but the meekness of his capitulation was somewhat surprising after the Scot's pre-tournament insistence that he was born to play one-on-one sport. It did not look like that as he succumbed to a 6&5 defeat at the hands of the South African - a sour end to a rotten day for Monty, who had awoken to discover that the Ryder Cup captain, Nick Faldo, had some unkind things to say about his conduct in the recent Seve Trophy, where the six-times major winner led a Great Britain and Ireland team.

"He [Montgomerie] is a tough one, the only one whose emotions I had to deal with. He only turned up for two of the five team meetings, which was disappointing. Then he had to be teased out to support his team on the 18th green," the Englishman said, confirming what many already suspected - that Montgomerie had better play his way into the team to face the United States next autumn, because he is unlikely to receive a captain's pick.

At this early stage it would require the nerve of a cat burglar to envisage a European Ryder Cup squad without the Scot, but on this form Montgomerie has no chance. Even he was unimpressed with himself yesterday, and that really is saying something. "I played rubbish. Rubbish. It was awful. The worse I played, the better he became. Very disappointed," he said.

One player certain to be present in the European team in Kentucky will be Justin Rose, although both he and his captain will hope for a better performance than the one he offered yesterday in going down 5&4 to Hunter Mahan of the United States.

Like Montgomerie, Rose had arrived at the West Course brimming with confidence. He also departed meekly, the victim of a malfunctioning putter which caused him to take 35 strokes over the opening 18 holes of his match. He was level par when he shook hands with his opponent on the 14th green second time round - good enough scoring to make the cut in an everyday European Tour event perhaps but far from enough to sustain a challenge in a matchplay event. "The hole looked smaller than the ball," he said afterwards.

Rose did not even have the consolation of going down to a household name such as Els. Mahan, a member of the US team in the recent Presidents Cup match in Canada, is considered to be one of the better young prospects but he still began his press conference with a lesson in how to pronounce his name. "It's May-han," he stressed before saying that he was as surprised as anyone to find himself playing for a £1m winner's prize. "It is like a dream come true. It's neat."

And it could get even neater if he sees off Soren Hansen of Denmark in today's second round. A win would put him into the semi-finals, where he would meet either Angel Cabrera, who was a magnificent 10 under par for 31 holes in beating Retief Goosen 6&5, or Paul Casey, who saw off the American Jerry Kelly 3&2. Casey said: "I played well in the morning and started all right in the afternoon but then it went wayward. I was in three ditches from the 9th hole to the 15th. After all of that I feel very fortunate to get through. Jerry could have taken the match further. It could even have gone the other way."

In the other first-round matches, Anders Hansen easily defeated Harrington 4&2, and his namesake and compatriot Soren saw off the combative South African Rory Sabbatini 4&3.

A two-hour delay at the start of the day meant two matches were still out on the course when darkness fell. Andrés Romero of Argentina was two up on Niclas Fasth, and Henrik Stenson, who had been five up on Woody Austin at one stage, was all square with one hole to play.