GOLF: Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke won their first-round matches with varying degrees of difficulty in the $3.7million Accenture World Match Play Championship in Carlsbad, California, last night.

Harrington beat Japan's Toshi Izawa by 2 and 1 but Clarke had to go to the 25th hole to beat Argentinian Eduardo Romero.

Clarke won this event four years ago by beating David Duval in the semi-finals and Tiger Woods in the 36-hole final, but came into the week on the back of three consecutive missed cuts, including a first-round 82 in Los Angeles last week.

Last night he had to produce a spectacular finish before surviving the second-longest match in Accenture Match Play history.

He birdied the 16th and then chipped in for an eagle three on the 18th to take his first-round tie with Romero into extra holes.

And the Ulsterman eventually booked his place in the second round on the 25th hole when the veteran Argentinian found trouble off the tee and was unable to match his par four.

Only Mike Weir's win on the 26th hole against Loren Roberts last year has lasted longer.

Clarke said: "It's a huge relief. You see guys out there, some probably shot four or five under today and are going home. That's a tough thing.

"The first round is so difficult because nobody wants to go home after the first day. I wanted to get off to a good start but it never really came back until the last two holes. Either of us could have won.

"On 18 I hit two good shots to the front of the green and I was just trying to chip it up there as close as I could and hit it a little bit firm. But as soon as I hit it it was tracking towards the hole.

"I think it was pretty fortunate that it managed to hit the flag."

Harrington was not in optimistic mood ahead of his clash with Izawa at La Costa, having won just one match in four appearances in the event.

The Dubliner had also just returned from a nine-week break in last week's Malaysian Open and was not too pleased to discover he was in the first match out, at 7.25 am local time, following his late arrival from Kuala Lumpur.

But after a shaky start the 33-year-old took advantage of some poor golf from his opponent to claim a place in the second round.

Izawa's opening tee shot set the tone for a poor-quality contest, landing so far left of target that it was off the chart used by tournament volunteers to note the position of each shot for the PGA Tour's website.

From there he was lucky to just carry the lake around 60 yards short of the green, and with Harrington in a greenside bunker in two, proceeded to hit a dreadful pitch that just made the front of the green.

However, Harrington could not take advantage and hit his bunker shot well past the flag to run up a bogey five, which Izawa matched after two-putting from long range.

The second hole was halved in par threes after Izawa escaped from a greenside bunker and the Japanese player went one up on the third when Harrington three-putted for a bogey six after both players had found thick rough from the tee.

A par four was good enough for Harrington to get back to all square despite bogeys at the seventh and ninth; he went to the turn one up when he was conceded a birdie four at the eighth with his opponent in trouble.

The standard of golf suddenly improved several notches on the back nine and the next two holes were shared in birdies rather than bogeys, but Izawa then found more trouble on 14 and 15 and conceded both to drop three behind with three to play.

A superb approach to six feet on the par-three 16th kept the contest alive but Harrington closed out the match on the 17th with a 12ft putt for par.

"I was glad to get that in," he admitted. "I didn't want to go down the last having lost the previous two. I should have had the match won after nine holes but I missed a lot of opportunities."

There were mixed results for England's Ian Poulter and Justin Rose, Poulter making a winning debut with a one-hole victory over Chris Riley but Rose crashing out 5 and 4 to Australian Stuart Appleby.

Poulter was delighted to get through against Riley although he was unhappy with his putter and headed off to borrow one from his friend Rose before he left.

"I've not been putting well for three weeks and borrowed Justin's on the putting green and played well with it, but had to give it back," Poulter said.

"He won't be needing it now unfortunately so I might go and get it out of is bag before he leaves."

Rose, who lost five of the last six holes against Appleby, said: "I was just a little off, a yard here or there in the rough, but that's all you need here. You need to drive the ball in the fairway to give yourself a chance and I didn't do that."

England's Paul Casey missed from inside three feet to lose out on the 21st hole to USPGA champion Shaun Micheel.

Scotland's Colin Montgomerie birdied the 20th hole of his match to complete a superb fightback from two down with three to play against Nick Price. And England's Lee Westwood lost to a revitalised Phil Mickelson.