Els ready to get back where he once belonged  PGATOUR.com Contributor PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- The game needs a little work, advised Ernie Els. "A bit rusty,'' he mused. So, apparently do the words It wasn't a bad grouping in the first round of the Nissan Open on Thursday -- Els, Phil Mickelson and Vaughn Taylor. Fans everywhere along the ropes at Riviera Country Club. Two of the game's greats and a kid with potential.  Ernie Els is making his 2007 PGA TOUR debut this week. (Action Images/WireImage)
Mickelson, only a few days removed from that win in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, had a 66, and when someone asked Els to describe the shots, the affable South African quickly responded, "Phil played awful ...uh, awesome.'' When the laughter in the interview room ebbed, Els, who got almost as big a kick out of the misstatement as everyone else, added, "I played awful... Phil was awesome. That's how you say it, isn't it? Awesome.'' A week in the bad weather at Els' home outside London apparently will cause a slip of the tongue as well as a pull of the driver. "My problem,'' Els said, "was getting the ball in play. I was a little out of sorts. But I made a couple of birdies coming in and a couple of good saves. So I'm quite pleased with my round, a 69.'' Two-under par at this historic course below the baronial mansions along Sunset Boulevard, this historic course in a canyon a mile inland from the Pacific where Ben Hogan won and Jack Nicklaus never won. And so far Tiger Woods hasn't won, either. Els has been a winner at Riviera, taking the 1999 Nissan Open. Almost won the 1995 PGA Championship here, too, but failed on the back nine. He feels comfortable at the course, with its classic design and its Spanish-style clubhouse on a bluff. Els won the South African Open in his homeland at the end of 2006. A few weeks back, he was third in the Qatar Masters and second in the Dubai Desert Classic so Els is definitely on the right track. The pain and the agony of that left knee injury the summer of '05, the one from a sailing accident that required arthroscopic surgery on his ACL, finally are gone. At 37, Els feels ready to get back to where he once belonged. "I think back in 2004, you were talking about the Big Three,'' Els recalled, alluding to Woods, Mickelson and himself. "Then it was Retief (Goosen) and Vijay (Singh). Now, it's a one-man show again. Tiger has set the bar really high. But I've got my own goals. "I can't really look into the future, but I can try and work as hard as I can to win golf tournaments. That's what I want to do.''
Els concedes he came back too quickly after the knee operation. You've heard this before from other injured golfers. He slipped into bad habits, trying to keep his weight off the left side. Not to mention, he wore down from fatigue, not being complexly recovered. "I came back fast,'' Els said. "I had some success in events in South Africa, the end of 2005. I won a tournament. That's the way I wanted to do it. I didn't want to feel the injury was that big a factor in my life, but it definitely was a bigger factor in my swing than I expected. It showed in my performance.'' Not in his consistency, though. He arrived at the Nissan Open with the longest current streak of PGA TOUR cuts made, 42 in succession. Still, Els hasn't won a PGA TOUR event since the 2004 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship. So while we ask if Els, the Big Easy, is ready for a Big Return, Els asks a quite fascinating question, one perhaps in the back of many a mind. If Woods is playing his absolute best in a tournament can anyone, Els included, beat him? "Let's say Tiger played last week, and I heard conditions were very tough at Pebble,'' Els said. "Twenty-under par around those three courses, the way Phil played, that's pretty amazing golf. "But if Tiger was in the field and Phil played that way, would Tiger have beaten him? Who knows? Probably. But who knows.'' That, certainly, is what makes golf, makes all sports, compelling. The game is one of performance, not speculation, even when the one doing the speculating has three majors and more than 60 victories worldwide. "Let's see how we go down the line,'' Els offered. "Play Augusta. Play the U.S. Open. I still feel if I play my best, I'm pretty tough to beat.'' He can be... no, not awful. Awesome. |
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