Els Not Taking It Easy on Himself

They list Ernie Els as 6 feet 3 and he doesn’t seem towering on TV. When he comes walking down the fairway, though, he looks gigantic, as if he’s going to pound the golf course into submission.

Then he starts his swing and he looks like an oil derrick, smooth and efficient, with no wasted motion.

Perhaps he makes it look too easy.

When you swing the stick as effortlessly as he does and you win the U.S. Open twice before your 28th birthday, then years with seven top-10 PGA finishes and $1.7 million in earnings don’t seem too special.

That’s where Ernie Els finds himself now, a little agitated and very motivated by his 1999 season.

He missed the cut at the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship and self-destructed with an 80 in the final round of the Masters.

“I’ve got to focus more on golf this year,” Els said. “I want to be in contention in the majors. I want to be proud of myself at the end of the day, and that wasn’t true last year or the year before.”

He was a proud father (his first daughter was born in May) and that was about it.

The only PGA Tour highlight came right here at Riviera Country Club, home of the Nissan Open.

Els prevailed over a star-studded leaderboard, exhaling when Tiger Woods hit an approach shot on 18 that strayed into the gallery, bounced off a fan and landed by a concession stand down the hill.

Officials at Riviera have tinkered with the course since then, lengthening a couple of holes. That’s not the biggest difference since last year. The whole golf landscape changed, courtesy of Woods.

Els got an up-close look at the new standard the first week of January, when Woods outdueled him in the Mercedes Championships on Maui.

He went toe-to-toe with Woods on the 667-yard par-five 18th hole--tailor-made for Woods’ game--but they remained tied after they both eagled the hole. Then he outdrove Woods on the first playoff hole, and Woods managed another birdie to stay even. On the second playoff hole, Woods made a 40-foot putt to win, leaving Els saying something like he was just happy to take him into extra holes.

“I played well,” Els recalled this week. “I took the positives out of it. He hit the shots you have to hit to win.”

He stayed in Hawaii to play the Sony Open, shot below 70 every round and finished fifth. That’s the last we heard from him.

“This is a long year,” Els said. “You can’t start off playing too many tournaments too early.”

So he retreated to South Africa, where he owns an 84-acre farm filled with sheep, cattle and a couple of dogs.

“I haven’t played in two weeks,” Els said. “I was on holiday back in South Africa. I had a great time, and I’m fresh.”

You wonder how good Els would be if he were fresh more often, if he didn’t spend his time hopping around the globe.

He spends more time in the air than the Goodyear blimp. His list of career victories reads like a Fodor’s guide, with wins in South Africa, Japan, Dubai, Australia, Taiwan and Britain, in addition to the United States.

His schedule is a little tighter this year, and he’s specifically focusing on doing well in the Masters at Augusta National and the British Open at St. Andrews.

Although he joked that “I’ll probably play better in the other two [majors],” those two courses fit his style well. As does Riviera.

“You have to get yourself in position to hit iron shots into these greens,” Els said.

There are few who hit the irons better than Els. And none looks better doing it.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.