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PGA TOUR: Els seeks return to winning form at U.S. Open

/noticias.info/ By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Contributor

MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- It's the shortest stroke in the game.

So, Ernie Els said, it should be the easiest, right?

Not.

It's that stroke, the one that maybe the Big Easy is a little too uptight about, that's been the difference between yet another great year and -- we hate to say it -- a mini-slump.

Two U.S. Open titles. An Open Championship. Four or five wins worldwide each year. Incredible talent and, at one time, a No. 2 world ranking.

Now it's No. 7 in the world, a handful of top 10s on the PGA TOUR, the 2006 Dunhill Championship on the European Tour and a comeback from a knee injury that's left his game in just-one-tournament-could-turn-this-around territory.

Could it be here? At treacherous Winged Foot?

"I think it might be a good week for me this week because of the fact that it's the U.S. Open," Els said. "I don't care how good you're playing coming into this week, you're going to miss shots, and missing shots here means something, more so than regular tournaments.

"I think everybody is going to have to scramble and everybody is going to have to keep their heads, so to speak."

Els has been there, done that, winning two U.S. Opens. At Oakmont in 1994 and Congressional in 1997. And, unlike previous years, he's flying into this one under everyone's radar.

"I'd love to have a little more attention because that would mean I'm playing well," he said. "I've been in this position before and it's not something you want to go through."

But he's plugging along. And figuring out this putting malaise.

"When you hit good shots and you keep missing birdie putts from makeable range, you get a little frustrated," he said. "You want to get your round going, so I lost a little patience there the other day."

Bob Rotella gave him a few things to work on Monday and, well, they're working.

"He's given me a couple little exercises just to go through, just to free up the stroke a little bit, to be a little bit more natural with the stroke," he said. "Not to make the technical stroke perfect, but making the stroke better and getting the feel back into my putting stroke."

It's starting to feel a bit more natural now, which is the way Els plays the game, period. His long flowing swing is one of the most elegant and effective on TOUR when it's on. Ditto for the putter.

In addition, he's just now, in the last few weeks, felt comfortable enough to ease down in a crouching position to read his putts. Before that, he didn't trust the knee fully.

Now he does.

Yet what he has to look at are the bad rounds. The weekend at Augusta where he shot 74-76, the last three holes every day at THE PLAYERS Championship, a closing 71 at the Verizon Heritage and, well, a final-round 81 at the Memorial Tournament.

"It's been kind of sporadic at times," he said. "It hasn't been really consistent the way I know I can play. Obviously, Memorial, I fell off the bus here on Sunday."

The putter, he said, is the key. If he can get it working on these devilish greens, he could contend.

"I love these type of golf courses," he said. "As [a] kid growing up, ... I love watching the U.S. Opens when it was played at golf courses like these, Winged Foot and Oakmont. Tree-lined, old, traditional-like golf courses.

"It's a wonderful test of golf." notas_de_prensa_archivo