Friday, November 3, 2000
Rejuvenated Els reverses fortune;
leads with 64 as falls Woods 4 shots off
By Ed Sherman
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
ATLANTA — The last time Ernie Els stepped
on a major stage, he compiled a record that made the Bears' 1-7
mark look good.
The Presidents Cup should have been renamed
the Dead Presidents Cup for Els, who was a horrid 0-5 two weeks
ago as the big gun for the International team. Els walked off
the course a whipped man, feeling thoroughly dejected and humiliated.
Fast-forward to Thursday. Els walked off
the East Lake Golf Club course all smiles again. He looked like
his old self, shooting a 6-under-par 64 to take the opening-round
lead in the Tour Championship.
Els leads David Duval by one shot and Steve
Flesch and Davis Love III by two. Tiger Woods, bidding for his
10th victory of the year, is four shots back after a 68.
Nobody wanted a good round more than Els,
who felt the need to be rejuvenated.
“The Presidents Cup was a tough week
for me,” he said. “Going through that week the way I
did, just playing from really mediocre to really bad and losing
every match—that's not me. I normally enjoy that kind of
format, but for some reason I couldn't get it together that week.”
Els decided he needed to get away. He took
his family for a week in the Bahamas, where he barely touched
a golf club. He also made sure to stay away from the newspapers
and television.
“I guess you wrote whatever you wanted
about me because my play really stunk,” Els said. “I
just wanted to get back into playing golf and try and enjoy myself
again.”
Els hooked up with his teacher, David Leadbetter,
during a practice round Wednesday. Leadbetter told him his swing
“wasn't as bad as you think.”
The results showed Thursday as Els played
a flawless round, shooting 32 on both nines.
“I hit my iron shots a lot crisper,
a lot better than I have been,” Els said. “I just tried
to keep the momentum flowing.”
Duval tried to do the same thing. He is
also looking for a late surge after enduring a rough spot during
the year.
Duval went through a long winless streak
and then was sidelined by a bad back. But he finally came back
to form by winning the Buick Challenge in September.
Now Duval would like a big finish to give
him some momentum going into 2001.
“I'm ready for it to wind down and
just get ready for next year as much as anything,” Duval
said. “I feel great, but I don't want to go too much. I want
to be really focused for 2001.”
Woods, meanwhile, is looking to put an exclamation
point on 2000. He had a rather ordinary round, with just two birdies
and no bogeys.
As usual, though, Woods delivered one extraordinary
shot that left his gallery buzzing. On the par-4, 480-yard fifth,
he hooked his drive to base of a tree. The ball came to rest on
a bed of pine needles, and Woods couldn't swing his club straight
back.
So did he take his punishment and pitch
out? Hardly. Woods grabbed his 9-iron and gingerly swung to avoid
the tree.
The ball headed dead right, for some nearby
trailers. But as it went over a trap, it suddenly veered left,
as if Woods were pulling a string, and ran up to the fringe of
the green. Then to make the show complete, he nearly holed a 93-foot
putt. Your basic tap-in par.
“I hooked it in there, so I could hook
it out,” Woods said. “That's why you practice those
shots.”
With three rounds left, Woods is in good
shape to make a run. He wasn't complaining about a 68.
“I felt I was about a yard off today,”
he said. “A yard here or there and I could have gone low.
It was one of those days that didn't happen.”
Woods, though, usually finds that extra
yard somewhere along the way. Els doesn't have to be told—he
has finished second to Woods five times this year. He would like
to avoid six this week.
“I'm going to try to play as well as
I can this week, and whoever I play with, so be it,” Els
said. “If I get bitten by Tiger again, it will be six. But
who cares? I'm playing well at the moment. I just want to not
get in my own way and let it flow.”Reuters photo
Ernie Els rebounded from a disastrous Presidents
Cup with a 64 on Thursday.
(c) 2000, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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