Players 'put the knife' in, says Els

Golf Digest:Ernie Els has hit out at players who criticised his redesign of Wentworth's West Course this week, saying they had "put the knife" into him.

Wentworth owner Richard Caring, who spent €7.4 million on the changes, had been “kicked in the teeth” by the players, Els said yesterday. “If they had criticisms they could’ve handled it differently. That’s the sad part of the whole week, a lot of the guys I’ve known for a very long time came out and basically put the knife in and I don’t really appreciate that,” Els said yesterday.

The redesign left few of the 18 holes untouched and several players at the PGA Championship complained in the media about the changes, especially the new moat and elevated green at the 18th.

“There is going to be criticism with any new design but I really wasnt expecting the backlash I got,” Els said. The 40-year-old South African added: “Obviously the 18th didn’t quite come out the way we wanted . . . but we didn’t need a bunch of know-all people to criticise everything – that is the disappointing part.”These greens were only laid in November and December and we are now holding the biggest tournament on tour on these greens. I think its a hell of a feat by the whole team. Els said he would make some changes for the 2011 PGA Championship, particularly the eighth and 18th holes. “Definitely 18. I can show you the plans I drew for it at the get-go,” said Els. “I’d also like to make changes on eight, I don’t like the heather on the mounds there.

Matchplay not on this season

WORLD MATCHPLAY:The World Match Play Championship, held every year bar one since its inception in 1964, will not be staged this season. "There will not be a World Match Play in 2010," European Tour chief executive George O'Grady told a news conference during the final round of the PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday. Plans are well advanced to bring it back on the schedule in 2011 but the dates are impossible to work out (this year) to the satisfaction of the promoter."

Wentworth hosted every World Match Play from 1964, the year Arnold Palmer beat Neil Coles 2 1 in the final, until 2007.

The tournament was not held in 2008 but returned last year at Casares in Spain where Briton Ross Fisher defeated American Anthony Kim 4 3 in the November final.

OGrady also announced the tour had signed a new four-year deal with PGA Championship sponsors BMW. Prize fund for the 2011 edition will be a minimum of €4.5 million, the same as this year.

BRITISH OPEN QUALIFYING:A month after finishing sixth in The Masters, 50-year-old Fred Couples is in Texas today trying to qualify for The Open at St Andrews, the course on which he came joint third behind Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie in 2005. The 36-hole competition at the Gleneagles club in Plano, Texas, sees 78 players, including 18 of the world's top 100, battling for eight spots at the Home of Golf in July.

England’s Greg Owen and Brian Davis, Scot Martin Laird, German Alex Cejka and Swedish trio Fredrik Jacobsen, Mathias Gronberg and Daniel Chopra are also involved.