Els May Have Set New Course

Ernie Els is the Tiger Slam Stopper, or something like that, since he’s the guy who won the British Open at Muirfield, halting Tiger Woods’ bid to win all four of golf’s majors this year.

Els says he thinks many want to see other players besides Tiger win majors.

“I can hear some comments out there, yeah,” Els said. “Let’s face it, we are playing in the era of one of the greatest players ever, maybe the greatest when he is done with his career.

“When you have a player with that kind of talent, he’s going to win a lot of golf tournaments.

“I’ve listened to some comments out there on the golf course, just from the general public, and I feel that they would like to see more players compete against him or actually beat him and win more tournaments.”

Said Els, who was asked how much he has changed since winning at Muirfield last month: “I think it’s a little early.”

*

He has three top-10 finishes in the majors this year and he’s only 22, but Sergio Garcia is still 0 for 16 in majors.

Garcia, who was eighth in the Masters, fourth in the U.S. Open and tied for eighth in the British Open, says it’s not that easy to win a major.

“They are all difficult to win,” he said. “That’s why they are majors, because they are tougher than a normal tournament to win.”

Garcia said he knows what it will take for him to break through:

“Make more putts. That’s what it comes down to. In these kind of tournaments, you know that you’re going to miss some greens because it’s tough and if you’re able to make a couple of par putts of maybe eight feet or seven feet, something that really keeps you going. That’s what Tiger has been able to do for a long time. I think that’s a difference.”

*

Then there is Phil Mickelson, who is 0 for 41 in majors, although it took a hole-in-one by David Toms in the third round of last year’s PGA to beat him.

At last year’s PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club, Mickelson said he wasn’t thinking about winning one major, but several of them. But despite a third in the Masters and a second in the U.S. Open, it sounds as though Mickelson is putting a different spin on that topic now.

“I think that it would be wrong to put the whole outlook of a year based on four tournaments,” he said. “Now, I’ve been trying to win major championships for a number of years and if I had looked at every year on that premise, then it would be a very disappointing career.”

Mickelson says he looks upon his play in majors as a steppingstone to the future:

“I do feel as though my game is ready and I feel as though I’m ready to come out on top, finally, in one of these tournaments.”

*

They play the Ryder Cup in twosomes, not in groups of four, but U.S. captain Curtis Strange might have been thinking about what possible pairings he could use in next month’s matches when he arranged the practice rounds here Tuesday.

The groups: Mickelson, Paul Azinger, Jim Furyk, Scott Verplank; Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Hoch, Stewart Cink, Toms; Hal Sutton and David Duval.

Strange and Tom Watson played with Sutton and Duval. Woods played with his usual practice-round partners, Mark O’Meara and John Cook.

*

This was supposed to be the first major to feature each of the top 100 ranked players in the field, but it’s down to 98 of 100 since the rankings of Pierre Fulke and Paul Casey dropped out of the top 100.

*

The Skins Game is going to make history of a sort. Greg Norman, who won it last year, is “unavailable” to defend his title. It’s the first time the defending champion is not returning, not counting 1997, when Fred Couples was unable to play because of the death of his father.

Woods, as the leading money winner on the PGA Tour, assumes Norman’s spot in the Skins Game, to be played Nov. 30-Dec. 1, at Landmark Golf Club in Indio.

With no defending champion returning, three other positions are open, but four possible candidates have already taken themselves out of the running--John Daly, Els, Garcia and Mickelson.

*

The last major at Hazeltine was the 1991 U.S. Open, won by Payne Stewart. There are 34 players in the field who competed in the Open 11 years ago, four of whom finished in the top 10--Larry Nelson, tied for third; Fuzzy Zoeller, fifth; Hoch, sixth, and Jose Maria Olazabal, tied for eighth. Woods was 15 at the time.

*

According to Thomas Bjorn, there is one spotlight this week and it will shine on--guess who. Tiger, of course.

“The focus is going to be on him to see if he can be the first guy to win three majors in the same year twice,” Bjorn said. “He’s a dominant player. I think we saw at the British Open, if you go out there and play your game and he doesn’t play his best game, well, you’ve got a chance.

“He goes into any tournament as a big favorite. I don’t feel it’s any different at this tournament than any other tournament. It can’t get much bigger than this.”

Bjorn said he is considering playing both the PGA Tour and the European Tour in 2003.