By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

He told himself not to, but he did. Ernie Els just could not resist it.

A Big Eight did for the Big Easy at last year's Masters. All because he tried to bite off more than he could chew.

"I got greedy. I played myself into position, had some momentum going and I gave it all back," said Els.

When he returns to the 13th hole this year, especially in the final round should he be in with a chance again, Els may well have to try to resist thinking back 12 months. It will be hard.

Hooking into the trees was bad enough, but the greed surfaced when he chose not to chop the ball back onto the fairway and instead attempted to leave himself a much shorter third shot and went into Rae's Creek.

Now he was playing four - and that went in the creek as well. Tiger Woods knew then that providing he stayed out of trouble the title would be his again. He did and it was.

After Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters in 1986 he was asked about the intimidating effect he had on others.

"I knew exactly how intimidating I was and it was a tremendous advantage," he admitted. "I knew that if I kept the pressure on and didn't do anything foolish I'd probably win.

"I realised that many of the players had the same physical skill I had, but I also realised that few of them had the mental skill to use that physical skill properly.

"I'd make a few birdies and then the others would get scared or impatient. They'd fail to make a move on me and I'd walk through the back nine."

Woods had five of his biggest rivals challenging him with a round to go last year, but one-by-one they fell away. Nicklaus' words apply equally to him. Perhaps even more so.

Of that quintet - Els, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh - Els is the only one to have won a major since.

The South African's victory at the Open last July, after a double bogey at the 16th which, if it had cost him the championship would have hurt even more than his triple bogey at Augusta, and his spectacular start to this season make Els the likeliest threat to Woods' hopes of a unique Masters hat-trick.

But that Open win came without Woods on the leaderboard. Only when he achieves that can we be sure that Els has become the really potent force which many think he still can be.

Els now has three major titles to his name. That is five fewer than Woods, but nobody else in the world's current top 50 has more.

"My expectations have risen in the last year or so," he says. "I am setting myself new goals and loftier standards. I just feel that if I don't step up now I probably never will.

"I'm at a time of my career when I've really got to go for it. That's my mindset at the moment - go all out."

It took the great Ben Hogan 10 attempts to win the Masters and this is Els' 10th appearance.

When he finished eighth on his debut in 1994, it looked unlikely that he would have to wait so long for a green jacket.

Two months after that fine maiden showing Els became US Open champion, beating Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts. And three years later came a second US Open, with Montgomerie pipped again.

On his last three trips to Augusta he has been second, sixth and fifth. The lengthening of the course can only help him, but there are some bad memories to overcome first - and one in particular.