The brackets will not be final until Sunday evening.
If anyone withdraws before then - Justin Rose is the only question mark because his wife is expecting their first child
- the brackets would be redone and Woods would face the first alternate, Richard Green of Australia.
Either way, it's not the greatest omen for the world's No. 1 player.
Three of his six losses in the Accenture Match Play Championship have come against Aussies, two of those to Nick O'Hern in the second round in 2005 and 2007. The other was a first-round loss to Peter O'Malley in 2002.
"I don't doubt his game will be ready," Stuart Appleby said Thursday. "Unless he plays an Aussie."
He laughed when told that Woods was expected to face Jones, who played one year on the PGA Tour and finished 144th on the money list. Jones has played most of his career in Japan, where he has won eight times.
Woods is 5-3 against Australians at the Match Play, beating Stephen Leaney twice, Adam Scott, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley.
As the No. 1 player, Woods will have the top seed.
The other top seeds are Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh, who has missed the cut in his last two events since returning from minor knee surgery in January.
Garcia would face Charl Schwartzel, while Harrington would play Pat Perez and Singh would take on Soren Kjeldsen. If Woods were to win his opening match, his next opponent could be the winner between Tim Clark and Retief Goosen.
A Woods-Goosen match might be interesting based on the South African's comments last year. A few days after Woods won the U.S. Open, where he winced and limped throughout the weekend in what turned out to be a dramatic playoff victory, Goosen questioned the seriousness of the injury.
