Ireland's Padraig Harrington enjoyed a comfortable 4&3 victory over Canadian Mike Weir in his opening match of the £1million Cisco World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth today.
The Dubliner was never troubled during the afternoon round having gone into lunch all-square with the left-handed Weir. At times Harrington played some lose shots but he was never punished and eventually closed his opponent out on the 15th.
Harrington, who was beaten by Ian Woosnam in last year's final, will now meet the number four seed Sergio Garcia in tomorrow's quarter-finals.
Earlier, Colin Montgomerie fended-off the challenge from American Fred Funk, winning by a 3&2 margin to set up a mouth-watering tie with Ernie Els tomorrow.
The South African has won this event three years in a row from 1994 while Monty claimed the honours in 1999. Of today's match Monty was just glad to get the job done:
"Neither of us broke any scoring records, instead you have to adjust accordingly in matchplay."
The vastly experienced Vijay Singh kept on top of matters against England's Justin Rose but the Fijian endured a closer finish than it should have been.
At three up with four to play, Singh was in control, that was until Rose fought back and had a chance to level the match at the last.
However, the 22-year-old missed a short three-foot putt for birdie and much to his surprise handed the game to Singh who will go on to play Retief Goosen.
Meanwhile, Nick Faldo staged an afternoon comeback against New Zealand's Michael Campbell after trailing three-down at lunch.
The gutsy 46-year-old won the 17th and 18th to force the match into a sudden-death situation.
With light fading rapidly over the West Course, and matters still deadlocked after six extra holes, officials decided that the match would conclude tomorrow morning.