Francesco Molinari made a flying start against Ryder Cup teammate Ian Poulter as the Volvo World Match Play Championship began in Spain.
In the first of the group games at Finca Cortesin, Poulter - a winner of the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Arizona last year - lost the first three holes.
On the 471 yard first he pushed his drive into a bunker and after three-putting from the fringe for a bogey five.
He lost the par three second when his Italian opponent holed from around 30 feet for a two and then on the long third Poulter's second shot hit the rocks and went into the lake left of the green.
Molinari was in a bunker for three, but a par five was good enough to increase his lead to three.
Under the new format all was not lost for Poulter even if he was beaten. Two of the three players in each of the eight groups progress to the last 16 and so the Englishman could even progress if he halved with Scot Paul Lawrie and then won a play-off between them.
In the next two matches of the opening day Masters Tournament champion Charl Schwartzel bogeyed the first two holes to go two down to Miguel Angel Jiménez and Spain's other representative, Alvaro Quiros, went one up when Paul Casey kicked off with a bogey.
Poulter finally got into the game on the 334 yard fourth, driving the green and making a 14 footer for an eagle two.
The gap then came back to one when Molinari bogeyed the seventh and instead it was Schwartzel in the biggest trouble.
A bogey six on the 575 yard fifth put him three down to Jiménez, while Casey did the same and fell two down to Quiros.
Rory McIlroy struck first against Retief Goosen with a birdie two at the second, but the South African turned the contest around by winning the fourth and fifth.
In the battle between US Open Champion Graeme McDowell and Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen it was McDowell who started much the better. He birdied the second and the South African bogeyed the next.
Molinari birdied the long 11th and went two up again, only for Poulter to make an eight footer to win the next.
McIlroy got back on terms with Goosen with birdies at the eighth and ninth, while McDowell and Luke Donald - up against lone American Ryan Moore - were both two up approaching the turn.
World Number One Lee Westwood halved the first four holes with Dane Anders Hansen and Casey turned two down to Quiros.
