Marana, Ariz. ? Tiger Woods made a triumphant return to golf Wednesday in the Accenture Match Play Championship with a start that showed golf what it had been missing in the 253 days since he limped his way to an epic U.S. Open title.

Just past high noon in the desert, Woods fired an 8-iron into 5 feet for birdie. Then came a gentle fist pump when his 3-iron from 237 yards on the par-5 second settled 4 feet from the cup for eagle.

He closed out Brendan Jones of Australia with a 3-foot par on the 16th hole for a 3-and-2 victory.

“It felt like nothing had changed,” Woods said. “Walking down the fairway, it was like business as usual.”

Before thousands of fans who scurried through the high desert, eager to see every shot from the world’s No. 1 player, Woods showed no sign of the reconstructive surgery done on his left knee a week after winning the U.S. Open.

Woods said he had looked forward to the rush of competing. It was as if all that time away from golf had been bottled up inside him. And then it came gushing out on a scorching day on Dove Mountain, where temperatures approached 90 degrees.

Woods won the first two holes before some rust settled in. Woods made three bogeys over his next five holes and was leading, 1 up, until he birdied the par-5 eighth with a 6-foot putt.

Jones never came any closer.

Phil Mickelson, who blew a four-shot lead at Riviera and rallied to win three days ago, did it again. He was 4 up on Angel Cabrera with five holes to play until the Argentine caught him, but Lefty birdied the 19th hole.

Sergio Garcia, the No. 2 seed, lost to Charl Schwartzel on the 18th hole when the Spaniard hit into the bunker and made bogey.

Third-seeded Padraig Harrington, who won the British Open and PGA Championship while Woods was away, arrived at Dove Mountain having missed his last two cuts. This was a short week, too, for he lost to Pat Perez on the 18th hole.

Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas, the faces of the next generation hopeful of challenging Woods, had the shortest days. Kim never lost a hole in beating Lin Wen-Tang of Taiwan, 7 and 5, while Villegas beat Rod Pampling, 7 and 6.