Els break the engagement

A classic matchplay encounter, a confrontation in every sense, saw Ernie Els, the world number two and top seed in the Accenture Matchplay Championship at the Metropolitan club here, beat Jean Van de Velde and move, by the narrowest of margins, into the quarter-finals.

It was a match full, not just of glaring errors, but of glares at each other; a match in which nothing was given away and no putt conceded, as each sought a conclusive advantage. In the end, the two men shook hands on the 19th green after a hole both men played extremely badly, and it left Van de Velde rueing the fact that he had played the last six holes of regular time in fourunder, and had still lost.

The initial frostiness was caused when the Frenchman asked Els to hole a putt well inside the leather, one the South African clearly thought should have been conceded. That tiny incident was compounded by Van de Velde's pace of play, which varies only from slow to reverse. It is an irritation to anyone and for someone like Els, who plays extremely quickly, it can seem like gamesmanship.

They were all square at the 18th and Van de Velde lay 18 feet from the hole, Els seven. After his usual eternity of preparation, the Frenchman holed the putt and produced a series of frenzied air-punches, while at the same time staring directly at his opponent. He admitted afterwards that he thought he had just won the match, for the Els putt was both downhill and curly.

The South African holed his putt and immediately turned some 90 degrees to his right to where Van de Velde was standing and swung a huge uppercut into the air. This was an uppercut with attitude and it was accompanied by a couple of words which trained lip-readers deemed unfit for general consumption. It was a remarkable display.

And so what went on out there, particularly on the 18th? "Jean made a good putt on the last green and he seemed to want to enjoy the moment," Els said. "But he wanted to enjoy it while he was looking right at me and I wasn't going to say `Great putt' and concede there and then. So I made my putt and I gave him a look right back."