Woods-Els Rivalry May Be Unmatched

It has been four months since they were even on the same continent, which means that the Tiger Woods-Ernie Els rivalry has had it sort of tough for gathering momentum. It’s not easy for this thing to pick up steam when neither guy has seen the other since October.

All that changes today, sort of, when the $6-million Accenture Match Play Championship begins at the La Costa Resort. Woods and Els are on the same golf course, playing in the same tournament, for the first time since the Tour Championship.

At least the rivalry has that going for it. That’s good.

On the other hand, they’re probably not going to cross paths unless they bump into each other in the buffet line or the locker room. That’s bad.

What’s more, half of the rivalry doesn’t think there’s much chance that he’s going to play the other half.

“Not real likely,” Woods said Tuesday after practicing in a drizzle.

“It’s not like it’s a stroke-play event, where you can go out and play the best for four straight days. It doesn’t matter here. You can be out on the fifth day. It’s just one of those things where we both have to win five matches to see each other.”

Woods says he understands the rivalry interest but that match play isn’t the best format to further develop it.

“You could play well here and be actually down the road,” he said.

That’s what happened last year when Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval -- the top three seeded players -- were defeated on the first day. Kevin Sutherland, who knocked out Duval, went on to beat Scott McCarron in the final and earn $1 million.

Woods says it’s easy to lose at match play because over 18 holes, the predictability factor isn’t nearly as weighted as it becomes in a 72-hole stroke-play event. Besides, he says, these are the best players in the world.

“It’s not like you get some of us out here at the elite level and you get a mini-tour player,” he said. “There really isn’t a whole lot of discrepancy between the top and the guy who’s 64th. There really isn’t.”

Woods plays Carl Pettersson, the last-seeded player, in the first round. Els plays Phil Tataurangi, the next-to-last-seeded player.

For Woods and Els to meet in the 36-hole final, each would have to win five matches. In the four-year history of the tournament, never have the two top-seeded players reached the final. Woods, in fact, is the only top-seeded player to reach the final. He lost to Darren Clarke in 2000.

Woods and Els are scheduled to play a stroke-play European Tour event next week at Dubai. They won’t compete in the same stroke-play PGA Tour event until Bay Hill, March 20-23.

Longshot or not, the possibility of a Woods-Els final Sunday keeps the rivalry talk going.

Last week at Riviera, Woods had two rounds over par, closed with a 65 and tied for fifth. The week before, he’d won at Torrey Pines in his first tournament of the year. Els has begun the year with four victories in five tournaments, including the first two events on the PGA Tour, at Kapalua and Honolulu.

Els played a practice round here Sunday, then spent Monday working at the Titleist camp.

On his Web site Monday, Els said he was wary of Tataurangi.

“I won’t be taking anything for granted,” he wrote. “The good news is, I still feel confident about my game and I’m right in the middle of a great run.”

Could he see Woods in the final?

“It would be great,” Els said Tuesday at La Costa. “But the probability of that happening is not very good.”

One of the more unusual aspects of the day, besides the first, ninth and 18th fairways (flooded), and the picture of John Daly (not entered) in a tournament brochure, was Phil Mickelson standing in the back of the room and listening to Padraig Harrington talk about how great it is that there’s finally a rival for Woods.

“It’s good,” Harrington said. “It’s interesting that people are considering that Tiger has a challenger. A year ago, people weren’t saying anything like that. I think even players weren’t even saying that.

“So it’s nice to see. Maybe Ernie is representing the rest of the professional golfers.”

And Mickelson was representing, well, whom? Left-handed, flop-shot artists with subcutaneous fat?

Of course, Mickelson was ranked second before Els.

And even though he’s No. 3 now, Mickelson says he doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body about being semi-invisible while the Woods-Els issue rages.

“I’ve actually enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s been fun.”

There are limits to Mickelson’s involvement in the discussion, which is understandable, because he’s not the subject. He wasn’t having any part of it when asked whether Tiger and Els needed to play head-to-head to cement the legitimacy of a rivalry, which Mickelson called “hype.”

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Besides being wet, the most noteworthy characteristic of La Costa is that they’ve changed the layout and flopped the nines. Also, the course is 261 yards longer, the biggest change at the par-four 17th, which used to be No. 2. It’s 85 yards longer and now measures 483 yards.