Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy both lose in the first round of the Accenture Match Play

The hope for a match play golf tournament is that the two biggest names make it to the finals and the ratings jump out of control. The reality is what happened on Thursday at Dove Mountain, where Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, the two biggest names in the sport, lost their first round matches as No. 1 seeds.

Woods went down to Charles Howell III, a friend of his who told The Golf Channel before this week that he had never beaten Tiger in any heads-up match, televised or otherwise, and was coming in a mighty underdog to Tiger, who has won this event three times in his career. McIlroy also lost to a friend in Shane Lowry, a guy with just one European Tour win as a professional and what seemed like a slim chance at actually winning this match against the No. 1 overall seed who made the finals a season ago.

So what happened? With Tiger, it was simply being outplayed. Neither player made a bogey all day in the Woods-Howell III group, and while Tiger did struggle on the par-5s, it wasn't like he hacked it around Dove Mountain on his way to a first round exit.

The McIlroy-Lowry match on the other hand was a bit sloppy. Both players hit it in the water on the par-3 third hole, matching bogeys, and McIlroy conceded the 15th hole after having to hit his second shot left-handed and blading his third shot out of the greenside bunker over the green and back in the desert.

So which of the exits is more shocking? You'd like to think that McIlroy is the answer since this golf course has never been Tiger's favorite, but I think the way Rory has played this season gives the bigger shock to Tiger, who already has a PGA Tour victory under his belt in 2013.

Woods might not Dove Mountain (word is he played just four practice round holes on Tuesday), but you'd think going up against someone who is clearly intimidated by the guy in Howell III would give the serious advantage Tiger.

But you simply can't take away what the two underdogs did on Thursday. Howell made some seriously clutch birdie putts on Nos. 15 and 16 to give him a 2-up lead and continued to pepper the flags on 17, forcing Woods to try and pull off a miracle on one of the tougher holes at Dove Mountain.

McIlroy, for whatever reason, can't seem to find a rhythm this season and it is definitely more than just a club change. Next week he will get a chance to defend his title at the Honda Classic but for now the Accenture Match Play is left without their two biggest names, and with some other top names bowing out in the first round, it is truly anyone's event to win with five rounds left to play.