Ernie Els' five-stroke win in the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne on Sunday is
just a taste of things to come.
That is the firm belief of Belgian sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout, who
after helping Retief Goosen win by eight in the Perth last week has no doubts
that his other leading client is heading back to the big time.
It is five years since Els won his second US Open, but the colourful
Vanstiphout said: "He is going to chase the tail of the Tiger Tiger Woods and
he is going to get his ears as well. That's a promise."
And on the job he has been doing with both Els and Goosen he added: "I'm
good, but I'm not God - I can never make a mule win a Derby, but it's easy when
you work with racehorses."
Els had gone nearly a year without a victory when he teamed up with Goosen and
won the World Cup in Japan in November, then a month later he added the South
African Players' Championship.
The 35th win of his career was a totally dominant display.
Ahead by two after his opening 64, Els stretched that by a stroke each day
with three successive 69s and so captured the £129,459 first prize with a
17-under-par total of 271.
Swindon's David Howell shared second place with Australians Peter Fowler and
Peter O'Malley, while Nick Faldo, 10th in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth,
was joint sixth with Greg Norman.
Els credits Vanstiphout with giving him more belief in himself and reminding
him to enjoy the game more - two doctrines which have been drummed into Goosen
as well.
The 32-year-old Els, asked if Woods was more beatable than when he finished
second to him in the Masters, US Open and Open championship in 2000, said:
"Definitely. I don't think Tiger is as dominant as he was then.
"Golf is a strange old game. You get highs and lows and I feel I am getting
to a high.
"I think this is a very important win for me. I was as nervous as anybody and
quite a few thoughts went through my head.
"Some were negative, but I tried to keep most of them positive. I've won by
big margins in the past and I tried to focus on that."
The four-shot overnight lead was halved first by Norman and then by Howell,
but for the second day running Els birdied the 557-yard ninth and eagled the
483-yard 10th, where he needed only an eight-iron for his second and hit it to
10 feet.
He was 10 under just for those two holes over the four rounds and said: "I
felt comfortable after that."
Howell finished 14th on the European Order of Merit last year without winning
a tournament - £206,970 for third place in the Dunhill Links Championship helped
him achieve that - and accepted he was probably playing for second place once
Els had his eagle.
The 26-year-old was two clear of those chasing him with seven to play, but
covered them in one over to the two under of Fowler and O'Malley.
"I'm still happy," he said. "I had eight weeks off over the winter and
spent six of them worrying about what my form would be like when I started
again."
Faldo, grateful to caddie Fanny Sunesson for getting him to change his hip
position, joked after his two closing 69s: "It's all new to me playing on the
leaderboard.
"It's been a very productive start to the season. I've learnt an awful lot of
things and have a good idea what I have to work on.
"It's not a fluke. My swing has made a good leap forward."
Barry Lane, joint third overnight, dropped to 14th with a 74, while Welshman
Mark Pilkington finished a week he will not forget in a hurry down in joint
39th.
The 23-year-old was lying third when he drove into a bush on the 15th hole of
his third round.
He then dropped his ball in the wrong place, was penalised two strokes and
almost got himself thrown out of the £810,000 event.
European Tour chief referee John Paramor said: "I was worried that it may be
a serious breach, which would have been disqualification.
"Then I realised that I was out in my calculations by probably two yards."
Pilkington's bogey five on the hole was changed to a triple bogey seven, his
round became a 75 and he earned only £3,247.
John Daly was on the same two-under-par mark, having failed to break 70 all
week on a course where he was told he could hit drivers to his heart's content,
but on arrival discovered it suited his one-iron - a club he had not brought
with him.
Norman, 47 next Sunday, was happy with his first outing of the season, but
second favourite Robert Allenby will not want to be reminded of a last-day 80
which saw him drop 10 shots in a horror eight-hole stretch from the seventh.
He bogeyed the first five of them, triple-bogeyed the 304-yard 12th and
bogeyed the next two.
Collated final totals in the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne, Australia.
(Gbr and Ire unless stated, par 72):
(x) amateur
271 Ernie Els (Rsa) 64 69 69 69 (135,932)
276 Peter Fowler (Aus) 69 70 70 67, David Howell 68 70 70 68, Peter O'Malley
(Aus) 68 68 70 70 (54,750 each)
277 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 68 72 68 69 (30,207)
278 Greg Norman (Aus) 69 67 73 69, Nick Faldo 67 73 69 69, Stephen Leaney
(Aus) 70 66 72 70 (24,417 each)
280 Greg Owen 73 70 68 69, Craig Parry (Aus) 68 71 71 70
281 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 69 77 66, Scott Laycock (Aus) 73 68 71 69,
Anthony Wall 72 70 69 70
282 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 73 72 66, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 70 70 71 71, Adam
Scott (Aus) 67 72 70 73, Richard Lee (Nzl) 75 62 71 74, Barry Lane 67 73 68 74
283 David Smail (Nzl) 69 71 74 69, Greg Turner (Nzl) 72 72 70 69, Jarmo
Sandelin (Swe) 75 66 72 70, (x) Eddie Lee (Nzl) 67 75 71 70, Mark Allen (Aus) 70
70 72 71, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 72 68 72, Phil Golding 72 67 70 74
284 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 70 71 73 70, Daren Lee 73 70 70 71, Joakim Haeggman
(Swe) 72 68 73 71, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 68 71 73 72, Steen Tinning (Den) 71 72
68 73, Peter Lonard (Aus) 67 71 72 74
285 Andre Stolz (Aus) 71 72 72 70, Sven Struver (Ger) 73 68 73 71, John
Bickerton 76 68 73 68, Steve Conran (Aus) 76 68 70 71, Mark Foster 70 73 70 72,
Gary Orr 70 71 70 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 73 68 69 75
286 Jamie Spence 72 72 73 69, Gavin Coles (Aus) 73 67 77 69, Yeh Wei-tze
(Tai) 74 66 76 70, John Daly (USA) 71 73 71 71, Miguel Angel Martin (Spn) 73 71
71 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 68 74 73, Mark Pilkington 66 70 75 75, Marc
Farry (Fra) 68 74 69 75
287 Ian Garbutt 71 70 75 71, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 70 75 72, Gary Evans 75
68 72 72, Douglas LaBelle (USA) 70 70 74 73, Stephen Gallacher 72 70 71 74,
Alastair Forsyth 70 71 71 75
288 Terry Price (Aus) 70 73 73 72, Steve Collins (Aus) 71 72 72 73, Jamie
Donaldson 72 72 71 73
289 Marcus Norgren (Swe) 72 71 75 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 72 74 72, Jeev
Singh (Ind) 69 73 74 73, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 71 72 73 73, Richard Backwell
(Aus) 71 71 73 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 69 73 75, Thomas Levet (Fra) 74 70 9
76, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 68 71 80
290 Costantino Rocca (Ita) 72 70 75 73, Andrew Coltart 71 70 74 75, Richard
Green (Aus) 70 72 73 75
291 Paul Sheehan (Aus) 73 71 77 70, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 70 77 72, Alex Cejka
(Ger) 70 73 77 71, Marcus Cain (Aus) 69 72 74 76
292 Simon Dyson 74 69 78 71, Zhang Lian-wei (Chi) 70 74 75 73, Soren Kjeldsen
(Den) 74 70 77 71
293 Matthew Ecob (Aus) 72 72 75 74, Mark Wilson (USA) 71 72 75 75, Raphael
Jacquelin (Fra) 71 70 75 77
298 Andrew Tschudin (Aus) 69 75 80 74
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook