As the top seed and defending champion, Luke Donald might have expected to have a relatively easy match in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship. Instead he got a nasty surprise.
What he got was a legend of the game and an exceptional matchplay player, Ernie Els.
Donald was always going to be drawn against the bottom-ranked player in the elite field of 64 at Dove Mountain, but on this occasion the bottom ranked player was triple Major winning, former world No 1 and seven-times World Matchplay winner, Els.
"Usually in that first-round matchup maybe you get someone with a little less experience that might have snuck his way into the tournament and never played the event before," world No 1 Donald said.
"But Ernie has a huge amount of experience. There are no easy opponents this week but certainly to start off he's going to be a tough one to try to beat."
South African Els was gifted his spot in the opening World Golf Championships, despite not being in the world’s top 64, when Phil Mickelson withdrew to spend time with his family.
Donald will still tee off as heavy favourite considering Ernie’s recent form, but the Englishman will be making a mistake if he writes the Big Easy off too early.
"I have a lot of great memories here, a lot of great things happened to me after I won here," said the 34-year-old, who beat Germany's Martin Kaymer 3&2 in last year's 36-hole final. "And I'm excited to be back.
"I've always enjoyed match play. I've enjoyed the fact that it's helpful to be consistent, not lose holes carelessly. For whatever reason, the format seems to suit my game."
Donald’s win in this event last year was the beginning of the best season of his career, so holds a special place in his heart.
"This was a big win for me in terms of the confidence I gained, not just from winning it, but the way I won it, the style in which I won it," said Donald.
"Without winning here, maybe some of the other wins wouldn't have been possible. It really restored some of my confidence in myself and proved to myself that I could win again."
