Donald seldom looked like losing when he won the crown last year and never trailed in any of his six matches, but he was under the whip from the word go against the big South African, who at his peak a few years ago, was rated as one of the games greatest match players of modern times
Els, a sweet-swinging, three-time major winner whose putting problems have sent him tumbling out of the top 50 in the World rankings, took advantage of Donald's poor form and error-prone performance to wrap things up as early as the 14th hole.
"I'm not sure where to start," said a visibly disappointed Donald, who is only the third top seed to lose in the event's opening round. "I just didn't play very well. It's disappointing.
"I gave away too many holes and made too many mistakes. You can't do that in match play against anyone, let alone Ernie."
"There's always hype when the No. 1 player is playing the Left Handed Callaway X-24 Hot Irons]" said Els. "But Luke and I took it for what it was.
"I think he don't think he wanted to play me and I sure as hell didn't want to play him in the first round, but that's the way it worked out."
While three-time Accenture Match Play winner Woods had to fight all the way to beat Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 1-up after starting out by losing the first two holes, Charl Schwartzel and Bae Sang-moon won their opening matches almost as comfortably as Els.