Els Begins To Make His Move To Top

Greg Kraft wants to prove he can win a tournament that counts. Greg Chalmers wants to prove he belongs on the PGA Tour. Both of them could have their hands full in the Doral-Ryder Open against one of the most proven players in the field.

Ernie Els, who decided to play this week only after losing in the first round of the Match Play Championship, cruised to a bogey-free 66 on Friday to get within two strokes of Kraft.

Five hours after Kraft sank an 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 67 that put him at 9-under 135, the winds calmed and Els came charging from the middle of a pack with the kind of play that earned him the nickname “Big Easy.”

“I’ve hit most of the greens in the last two days, so that’s kind of nice,” Els said. “If I keep hitting it like that, I think I’ll be close.”

Kraft, who won the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic when it was an unofficial event but hasn’t come close to winning in five years, was closer than anyone all day. Four of his six birdie putts were inside 5 feet.

Kraft will be paired today with Chalmers, who also had a bogey-free 66 and was at 137 with Els.

Chalmers, 25, won the Australian Open in December just one month after surviving Q-school to get his PGA Tour card. He admits to getting intimidated playing along with the likes of Tiger Woods, David Duval and Greg Norman.

“You forget that maybe you can play a little bit yourself sometimes,” he said. “It’s hard to get used to seeing those guys around.”

Woods and Duval are among six of the top seven players in the world who decided to take off a week after the Match Play, giving Doral it weakest field in years. The best news of all was that Els made an early exit from La Costa and didn’t want to take another week off.

“It felt like I missed the cut last week,” said Els. “I just felt that I was playing well, and if I take this week off and I had kind of last week off, I might lose out on that bit of magic.”