1995 / 77th PGA RIVIERA : Els Goes Into Spin and Blows a Chance : Golf: Missed birdie putt on 16 leads to bogey on 17 as third-round leader shoots 72.

Ernie Els can always blame the par-three 16th hole, his velodrome from hell, for snatching the 77th PGA Championship away from him.

In fact, Els may never go on another merry-go-round, sing “Ring Around the Rosey” or watch bath water swirl down a drain.

What Els’ 12-foot putt for birdie did on Sunday almost defied physics. It entered left-center of the cup, circled around the rim and came rolling back toward him, a near 360-degree navigation.

The ball did everything but go in.

“It took everything out of me,” Els said later of the injustice.

Was it important?

Had he holed the putt, Els would have gone to 17 under par, regained a share of the lead he squandered to Steve Elkington, and headed to the par-five 17th with renewed purpose.

But how could he forget 16?

“I thought I made it,” Els said when asked to relive the putt. “I read it perfect. I wasn’t going to leave it short. I hit it--I thought I hit it perfect and I couldn’t believe it when it came out. I mean it went in the left center, and I thought it was in.”

The miss haunted him to the 17th tee box and beyond. Els hit a poor tee shot, left a nine-iron short of the green on his second, chipped short on his third and missed a six-foot putt for par.

End of tournament. End of Els. End of talk about winning his second major before age 26 and, for now, comparisons to Nicklaus.

While 16 will forever hang as Els’ PGA albatross, he will eventually have to come to terms with the rest of the course and his final-round play.

The PGA was his to lose Sunday at the Riviera Country Club, and Els lost it.

He had a three-shot lead over Mark O’Meara and Jeff Maggert and frittered it away.

On a day when everyone around him was working Riviera like a pitch-and-putt, Els shot a one-over-par 72 after rounds of 66, 65 and 66. He finished two shots back and tied for third, at 269, with Maggert.

When it came down to the money, Elkington, who trailed Els by six shots entering the day, shot a 64. And Colin Montgomerie, who birdied 18 to force a playoff, fired a 65.

Els, admittedly, set out to protect his lead, a strategy that almost never works.

“I was watching the scoreboard, I knew what I had to do,” Els said. “Steve was always 17 under on the back nine, and I knew I had to make a couple of birdies.”

Sixteen was the killer, but there was plenty of bleeding along the way.

At No. 4, Els three-putted and bogeyed, giving back the birdie he made on No. 1.

Els: “That set me back a little bit.”

On the par-three sixth, he pulled a seven-iron into the crowd and took another bogey.

At seven and eight, he missed makeable birdie putts--six and 10 feet respectively--and heard Elkington’s thundering footsteps.

At the short 10th, Els had made birdies Friday and Saturday by playing it safe.

Sunday, he went for the green with his driver and ended up saving par.

“There again, I think that was a mistake on my part,” Els said. “The whole week I was going with the two- and three-irons off the tee, and I made two birdies there the first three rounds. They put the tees up a little bit, and the pin was on the left side. I thought ‘If you get a good drive going, you can two-putt for birdie’ or something.”

Sometimes thinking is the worst thing you can do in golf.

“I was going to hit it on the green, but I just flew it to the right, and obviously that is dead there. You’ve got no chance of making birdie there.”

Elkington, who shot 31 on the front nine, had birdied 10 and caught Els at 15 under.

It would be the first of three consecutive birdies for Elkington, who would go to 17 under after 12 and par the remaining six holes.

Els closed to within a stroke of Elkington when he birdied 12, and held steady until his round-the-cup adventure on 16.

But, in the end, Els hit only seven of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens.

“I just never found the fairway today,” he said. “And you know, obviously 16, as I said, really took a lot of steam out.”

Els is young, only 25. He is a can’t-miss talent, having already won the 1994 U.S. Open. But he still has some rough edges.

“Well, I hope so,” he said. “I played so well all week, man. And to come this close, really it kind of hurts a little bit, you know.

“Hopefully I’ll see the sun come up tomorrow and maybe learn from it.”