Friday, March 1,
2002
Els
takes command at Doral; Tiger lurking
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
MIAMI (AP) - Don't
be fooled by the nickname. When Ernie Els is on his game, the
Big Easy likes a golf course to play as difficult as possible.
That's what he got
Friday on the Blue Monster at Doral, and Els delivered a command
performance. He had another bogey-free round with a 5-under 67,
giving him a two-stroke lead over Briny Baird in the Genuity Championship.
"You had to
play pretty well to break 70," he said. "Hopefully,
it will stay that way."
Tiger Woods didn't
break 70, but he finally managed to break par in a second round.
An adventurous day of five birdies and three bogeys (70) left
him only four strokes behind, in serious contention after 36 holes
for the first time this year.
"In these conditions,
if you let your mind wander you can make 5, 6, 7 in a heartbeat
out here, especially with as much water as this golf course has,"
Woods said. "You've got to be really committed to what you're
doing."
Els was at 11-under
133, amazing considering he was among the late starters and the
course played two strokes more difficult than the opening round.
Gusts were 25 mph, enough to bend flagsticks and allow the Blue
Monster to show its teeth.
- Chris DiMarco,
the first-round lead at 65, played the final four holes in 5-over-par
and finished with a 79. He narrowly made it to the weekend.
- Davis Love III
took a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 third hole. He missed the
cut, shooting a 77 for a 147 total.
- British Open champion
David Duval made only three pars in his first 10 holes, had a
73 and missed the cut for the first time since last year at Pebble
Beach. Duval came to Doral having broken par in every round this
year. He left with rounds of 72-73.
- Ty Tryon kept his
streak going. The 17-year-old has yet to break par as a professional,
posting a 77 to miss the cut.
"I felt like
conditions were pretty tough, but I was looking forward to it,"
Els said. "I just think the golf course needs a bit of breeze
and a bit of wind to make it a little bit more difficult for the
players.
"It gives the
guys that are really playing well an opportunity to show that
they are playing good."
Els took control
on the back nine. He made birdies on three of his first four holes,
including an 18-foot chip-in for birdie. He missed six greens
Friday, but usually in the right place from which to save par.
Els is the only player
in the field that has not made a bogey. He kept that alive by
getting up-and-down from thick rough behind the 18th green.
Baird had a 66 and
will be in the final group Saturday in his hometown. He described
his round as "virtually flawless," and it was tough
to disagree - no bogeys, no par putts longer than 3 feet and the
lowest round of the day. Having grown up in Miami, he allowed
himself a look at the leaderboard stationed in the middle of the
pond on the 18th hole, his name at the top Friday morning before
Els teed off.
"I didn't sit
back and scratch my head and say, 'Wow, man, I'm leading the tour
event.' But I thought this was nice. This is what you play for,
and this is where you want to be. Now, let's see what we can do
from here."
That what Els wants
to find out, too. A two-time U.S. Open champion, he failed to
win on the PGA Tour last year for the first time since 1994.
"I'll just try
and do it this week," he said. "And if not this week,
then the next week. I just feel like I'm playing good enough.
Hopefully, it's a matter of time."
Still, there are
36 holes remaining - and one big cat in his rearview mirror. Els
gave a hint that he was aware of Woods' presence when he mentioned
the score, but not the name.
"I've got a
two-shot lead and a four-shot lead on third place," he said.
"I played pretty well in these kind of conditions today.
Can I do it again? Hopefully, I can."
Joining Woods at
137 was former British Open champion Justin Leonard, Rich Beem,
Skip Kendall and Peter Lonard of Australia.
Woods' round included
one of the wildest shots he has produced in some time, a flier
out of the rough on No. 18. The ball clanged off the top of the
grandstand, and Woods managed a smile only after it streaked across
the green and stopped short of going into the water.
"I didn't know
how it was going to come out," Woods said. "I didn't
mean to fly it to the grandstand." Divots: Woods' previous
second-round scores this year were a 74 at Kapalua, a 73 in the
New Zealand Open, 73 at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and a
77 at the Buick Invitational. There was no second round last week
when he was eliminated in the first round of the Match Play Championship.
... Baird, who used to carry a scoreboard at Doral when he was
a teen-ager, realized the kid in his threesome hasn't been at
it very long. "It's seniority. You look for the biggest name
you can find and take that group," he said. "He obviously
hasn't done it very often to get stuck with our group. It's not
a group that you would be like, 'Oh, yeah, Briny Baird, (Brad)
Elder, (Brandel) Chamblee.' You won't be excited about that group."
Baird was a standardbearer one year, and got Dick Mast.
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