These are troubled times for the "Big Easy". The familiar ambling gait, the ready smile, a laid back demeanour bordering on the horizontal and that beautiful, rhythmical swing has been replaced by a darker mood and a deteriorating game.

Whisper it, but Ernie Els is struggling with his game. It could not be more inopportune. Els, runner-up in the first three majors of last season, has arrived at Augusta for the Masters this week needing all the good memories he can muster.

If good form going into the tournament was the sole criterion for deciding who wears a green jacket come Sunday, then the world number three and double US Open champion should skip town.

His 81 during the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta was the South African's second worst score in nearly 450 rounds on the US Tour. Finishing 15 strokes behind winner Scott McCarron, Els lamented: "That tested my patience to the limit. Man, I don't think I've ever had a tougher time selecting clubs." A strong wind played havoc with Els's club selection but even he refused to downplay the poor nature of his golf.

Instead he described his first nine holes in the event, a six over par 42, as the stuff of a 15handicapper. In between there was a 67, Els's best round for a month, but that was of minor consolation. Els could have chosen the three-hour drive - or 40-minute flight - from Atlanta to Augusta, but the 31year-old headed for Orlando and a day at home with wife Liezl and 22-month-old daughter Samantha. Mentally, it should offer him a little inner peace, something which his golf is patently not providing him with at the moment.

Colin Montgomerie could empathise. He is struggling with his game at present and the last thing he requires is another dose of sledging that generally doorstep his American sojourns.

The Scot is desperate to demonstrate this week at Augusta that his days as a contender in major championships are not behind him. Coinciding with the end of his seven-year reign as European number one, Montgomerie managed nothing better than 19th place in any of the four majors in 2000. The last time he was in the thick of the action with a round to go was the 1997 US Open. Fifteen majors ago.

So, while Tiger Woods hogs the limelight heading into what could be the first-ever clean sweep of the sport's biggest four titles, just to threaten next Sunday would be a huge step back in the right direction for Montgomerie.

This is the 37-year-old's 10th Masters and on the course where six fellow Europeans - Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Jose Maria Olazabal - have won 11 times between them in the last 21 years, his own best finish so far is eighth.

Last April he had that 19th spot and, while it made him joint leading European with debutants Padraig Harrington and Jean Van de Velde, coming off the final green his frustration was summed up when he said: "Every year I come here with great expectations and every year I leave with great depression."

His most memorable experience remains not a fond one, but one from which he emerged chastened and humbled. Montgomerie was lying second after two rounds of the 1997 Masters and as a result partnered the leader, a 21-yearold Tiger Woods.

While Woods, playing his first major as a professional, shot 65, Montgomerie shot 74. A day later, as Woods was reaching a record 18 under and winning by a record 12 strokes, he returned an 81.

There did not appear to be lasting scars because it was only two months later that Montgomerie began the US Open with perhaps the round of his life, a 65 he called "as good as I can play."

Els denied him there, just as he had three years earlier, and with Steve Elkington having beaten him in a play-off for the US PGA in between, Montgomerie's wait for the golfing gods to look down kindly on him went on. And on and on.

As well as he drives and hits his irons - Montgomerie is often heard to say "I fell out of the cradle able to do that" - the doubts he has about his putting are something he has yet to overcome on perhaps the most well-known, but also most feared greens in golf.

"I just have to be patient. It's a horrible word and a horrible thing to try and achieve, but that's what I've got to be," he said. Montgomerie's brittle confidence of late has not been improved by problems in his private life, the strain of his golfing ambitions affecting his marriage to such an extent that he and wife Eimear split for a while.

Back together this year, he is hoping that with less attention on him he might at last do his talent justice at Augusta.

While Els and Montgomerie confront the devils within, golfing conversation in Augusta is peppered with references to the debate surrounding whether on winning this year's Masters, Woods could claim it to be a Grand Slam. Tim Finchem, the US Tour commissioner was the latest to offer his tuppence worth.

He pointed out that there is no regulation that determines precisely what the Grand Slam is, whether it is winning all four majors in the one year or holding them all at the same time. "Me, personally, as a fan, I think it is pretty compelling to win all four major championships in a row," he added.

The concept of the modern Grand Slam came about in 1960, when Palmer was at the peak of his game. He won the Masters for the second time and then charged from seven strokes back in the final round to win the US Open. On his way to the British Open at St Andrews, Palmer and sports writer Bob Drum, who chronicled Palmer's career for the "Pittsburgh Press", were talking about how professional golf had effectively ended the concept of a Grand Slam, the one Bobby Jones achieved in 1930 by taking the US Open, US Amateur, British Open and British Amateur in the same year.

"Why don't we create a new Grand Slam?" asked Palmer. Drum wrote about it, and it took off from there. The modern Grand Slam was born.

Now, Woods has the chance to make history by holding all four majors at the same time, but whether or not that constitutes a Grand Slam is open to debate. Even though a total of 101 players have earned invitations, only 94 are expected to start, among them two Irishmen, Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, both of whom stayed on in Jacksonville after the Players' Championship to prepare for their latest visits to Augusta.

For Harrington, the return visit is vastly different from his debut appearance last year. On that occasion, he was one of the last players to check in, arriving on the Tuesday having travelled up from Sao Paulo where he had won the Brazil Open, an event he'd belatedly entered in an attempt to sharpen his game.

This time round, the Dubliner spent much of last week focusing on his short game at the facilities in Florida and arrived here with his wife Caroline on Saturday to reacquaint himself early with a course that is shrouded in mystique.

On his first ever appearance in the Masters last year, Harrington finished 19th. "I have learned something from last year, but whether that helps me finish better I just don't know," he said, but he has used his practice rounds to try and learn more about the course.

Clarke, whose best performance in the Masters was his debut appearance in 1998 when he finished tied-eighth, has also used the practice facilities in Florida to fine-tune his short game, and particularly his putting, for this week's test.