Els digs deep to survive

IN ONE of the classic confrontations, the proven thoroughbred, Ernie Els, beat one of this season's form horses, Steve Stricker, after being six down with only 16 to play in the second round of the Toyota World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth yesterday.

Els, who won on the 36th hole, joins Gary Player and Sandy Lyle in the Houdini club, reserved for those who have achieved the seemingly impossible in this tournament. The South African won by the relatively simple expedient of having seven birdies in his last 16 holes, while Stricker played that same stretch in one over.

Els's achievement was at least as great a feat as that of his countryman, for although the latter was seven down with 17 to play, he took to the 37th hole to finally subdue Tony Lema, back in 1965. Lyle's win over Nick Faldo in 1982 is arguably the greatest of all these fantastic recoveries, in that while he was "only" six down with 17 to play, he actually won by 2 and 1.

Afterwards Els was almost bemused by the fact of his win. "When we started again in the afternoon," he said, "I just wanted to get to the second nine. I didn't think I had much of a chance. He was all over me in the morning." In fact he reversed the scores exactly, going round in 66 in the afternoon, to match the American's six under in the morning. Stricker, like Els had done in the morning, took 73 in the afternoon.

Els might have been suffering from a slightly unorthodox preparation for the tournament. There have been social occasions with Ian Botham and Alan Lamb and on Thursday he played golf not at Wentworth but at Sunningdale, with Sean Connery and Jackie Stewart. It was his birthday, he didn't have a drink, but "I played today like I had a hangover, didn't I?"

The American, who might have a future as a football manager over here when he finishes with golf, given his rather cliched summing up, said: "It was a tale of two matches really. I tried to take it one shot at a time, but I guess it didn't work."

The American probably needs to believe in himself more before he can compete at this level, particularly when it is so important to be mentally strong. Before this event started Stricker was saying things like: "I think I have weaknesses. My long game and my iron play are not as good as they should be." Amazingly, even before going in to lunch six up yesterday he repeated: "I still believe I have weaknesses although I haven't shown them yet."

He certainly put that right in the afternoon. He had to contend with 11 putts over the first nine holes from Els, but during that same time, Stricker was missing six greens. The mind games had begun as early as the third, when Els chipped in for a winning birdie, continued at the eighth when he did it again, both times from 25 feet, and then the South African really rubbed it in at the ninth.

Having never even scented the fairway, he holed a foot par putt for a half, and the combined effect of the chips and the putts on Stricker was interesting. Els missed the green at the 10th and the American said to him: "Shall I give it to you or do you want to hit it?" The comment showed that the initiative and the momentum were now with Els.

He continued to play well, squared at the 15th where he hit a six iron second to four feet and won at the 18th, although not without alarms. Stricker hit his drive into a bunker, hit the lip with his recovery and then had to attempt to make the green 238 yards away with one foot in, the other out, of the sand. The result was what Else called "one of the best shots. I've ever seen in my life." He hit the green, but so did Els, in two, and two putts later the champion of the last two years had won his seventh successive match in this event.

Els had been due to meet Colin Montgomerie but the Scot rather surprisingly lost to Mark Brooks, the US PGA champion who had been two down with 11 to play. From there on, though, Brooks was seven under and, said Montgomerie, "he got up and down all day long and that's confidence boosting for him and draining for the opponent, and that's what happened to me".

Montgomerie actually led by two after four holes and then again after 24, but Brooks birdied the 26th and 27th and they shared the next five, two of them in birdies.

Brooks's 22-foot birdie putt on the 33rd was answered by a pitch to four feet on the next by Montgomerie, but back again came the Texan. He pitched to eight feet on the 17th and made that to nose in front and then, after Europe's number one had two-putted the last for birdie, he matched it from eight feet again.

Vijay Singh beat the reigning US Open champion, Steve Jones, by 9 and 8, in a match in which the winner was approximately nine under. Jones has found it difficult to come to terms with the demands of his celebrity, but his was not the worst margin of defeat in this championship since it started in 1964. Roberto de Vicenzo lost by 10 and 8 to Arnold Palmer in 1966 and Tom Watson defeated Dale Hayes 11 and 9 in 1978. Severiano Ballesteros also beat Chip Beck by 9 and 8, after which the American talked about having gone through "the crucible of humiliation." Jones was a good deal more relaxed than that. When, at the 17th hole in the morning, he hit a drive out of bounds, he decided against hitting another on the grounds that "I wanted to watch the match in front it was much more interesting".

As for his own play, Singh said: "I was hoping to do what I did and hopefully I can do the same tomorrow."

It looks a far tougher assignment, however. Tom Lehman went round in 69 in the morning to be two ahead of Mark O'Meara. Then he played the next 13 holes in six under. He won comfortably, 6 and 5.