Tiger and Ernie: A rivalry is born
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Sports Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Arnold Palmer saw greatness the first
time he laid eyes on Ernie Els and Tiger Woods.
He was paired with Els, a 22-year-old from South Africa, at
the 1992 PGA Championship. Palmer was so mesmerized by his swing
that on the 17th hole, he offered Els a spot in the Bay Hill Invitational.
"I was playing pretty nice the first day," Els said.
Nearly four years later, Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were playing
a practice round at the Masters with 20-year-old Tiger Woods,
who had won the first of three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles.
They agreed Woods had the game to win at least 10 green jackets,
which no longer sounds implausible after the way Woods won last
year.
What better place for golf's next rivalry to take root than
at Palmer's tournament?
"You're probably going to feel it a lot more now,"
Els said of a rivalry with Woods after he won the Bay Hill Invitational,
a 36-hole Sunday in which he left Woods and PGA champion Davis
Love III in his wake.
"Golf is really healthy at the moment, so I think it's
good for golf that both of us play well."
Of all the great players in their 20s, no two have a more comparable
set of credentials than Woods and Els.
Both won a major championship in their first full season on
the PGA Tour - Els took the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1994, Woods
the Masters in his first try at Augusta as a professional.
Both have six PGA Tour-recognized victories - Els is six years
older, but also spends about half his time overseas, where he
has won 21 times. Both are outstanding off the tee - Woods is
about 20 yards longer - and have short games that are under appreciated.
What makes this a natural rivalry is that Woods may be the
one to finally bring out the fire in Els, who is so smooth it
sometimes looks like he doesn't care.
"He's intense, but he's a laid-back intense," Woods
said. "He's not like a Curtis (Strange) or a Raymond (Floyd).
You don't get that look from him."
But you do get his game.
Els was clearly motivated at Bay Hill by playing with Woods.
Just two months earlier at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand,
Woods came from eight strokes back in the final round to catch
Els with a 65, then beat him on the second hole of a playoff.
"It could have been anybody who could have come out of
the group with a 65," Els said.
But it was Woods, ranked No. 1 in the world ahead of Els and
treated as such. Even in Sunday's final pairing - Woods, Els and
Love, the winners of the last three majors on American soil -
the majority of the gallery was interested only in Woods.
"I was keen to go," Els said.
Els' first approach stopped 18 inches behind the cup for a
birdie. He caught Woods with a birdie at the turn, then played
a stretch on the back nine that impressed even Woods.
Els was all over the flag - a 5-iron to 8 feet, a 3-iron from
218 yards to 3 feet - and one-putted six of the first seven greens.
"Ernie played great," Woods said. "He drove
it well, hit his irons well and made everything in the morning.
In the afternoon, he didn't make anything out of the ordinary,
but he made the makeable putts, and that's the key to winning."
Els won the tournament with a 65 in the morning, then had a
conservative 73 in the afternoon for a 14-under 274 and a four-stroke
win. Woods was 10 strokes back and out of the top 10 for the first
time this year.
"I played 36 holes with two of the best players in the
world, and to win by quite a margin is really a good feeling,"
Els said.
It was the second time Els showed he has an answer for a Tiger
tale.
A year ago, Woods won the Masters and the question was whether
he could become the first player to win all four majors in the
same year. Els ended that at Congressional by winning his second
U.S. Open championship in four years.
"It's going to be quite interesting now to see how we
progress from here, especially with our first major coming up,"
Els said. "We'll see how Augusta plays. It's tailor-made
for Tiger, as he showed last year. But there's quite a few guys
on their games at the moment."
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