Monday, April 15, 2002
Els hooks it left, gets wet
Musta took a wrong turn at Rae's Creek
By Paul Daugherty, pdaugherty@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
AUGUSTA, Ga. — He'd made it through Amen Corner unhurt and now Ernie Els was ready to make a run at Tiger Woods.
Standing at the 13th tee, Els was three shots behind Woods, who was just beginning to play the Corner, Holes 11, 12 and 13.
Normally, the 13th is a birdie hole, even this year when it was one of nine holes lengthened. Make a birdie, Els figured, make it interesting.
“I told myself all week, Don't go left” with the tee shot at No. 13, Els said. He went exactly left, dead left, hooking his drive into the trees on the other side of Rae's Creek. “A crazy error,” he called it.
Els compounded the error by trying to play a hero shot from the pine straw, between several trees. The smart play was to punch out to the fairway; his caddie told him so.
“Just go out sideways,” the caddie urged.
“I have a little gap,” Els replied.
Very little. His shot clipped some tree branches and plunked in the creek. “A very bad shot at a very bad time,” Els said. If he'd listened to reason and his caddie, Els “would have had a sand wedge in. I can't explain it,” he said.
When Els was done at No. 13, so was his chance of winning. He made a triple-bogey 7. Such is life chasing a Tiger at the Masters on Sunday afternoon.
“If I'd just played my normal game, I'd have been 12- or 13-under” par, Els said.
So why didn't you?
“I told myself I was going to go all out today and I blew it. No other way to describe it,” he said. “I hit (the tee shot) in the most impossible place.”
The only other player with a back-9 chance to catch Woods followed a similar script. Vijay Singh was just four shots behind Woods at the par-5 15th. Then he hit his approach into the pond. Dropping from 80 yards or so, he hit another in the water. By the time Vijay was done, he was Singh-ing the blues. “Two bad shots with the wedge, and that was the end of that,” he said.
Woods didn't need anyone's help to win his third green jacket. But Els and Singh made it a lot easier.”
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Els hooks it left, gets wet
