Thoughts on Carnoustie

In general, though, Els seemed to possess what British meteorologists say when issuing a weather forecast and they're not sure if it's going to rain like hell or not: "medium confidence." In shooting a first-round 72 that left him T-39, the longest putts Els made were a 10-footer for par at No. 12 and an eight-footer for birdie at No. 14. He missed par efforts of six and 12 feet on the last two holes.

"I'm really striking my putts well," he said after the round. "I haven't made too many, but I'm putting OK. I didn't shoot myself out of it, but I need to pick up the pace now."

Els was staying at the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews, normally a 45-minute drive, but he was making the daily commute in a helicopter, which cut the trip to only six minutes. He was off early Friday, at 7:25 a.m. It was another good day for scoring, but Els couldn't capitalize. He birdied the fifth hole from seven feet but missed birdie putts of 10, 15, 5, 7 and 10 feet. His frustration bubbled up after the latter attempt at No. 9, which was set up by a fine approach from 210 yards. When he missed, Els yelled a monosyllabic cuss word that includes letters one uses in spelling "Fred Funk." "Oh, jeez," Els said later, when asked about the moment. "That's just the way I felt. Normally I keep it all in. But I thought maybe let me get everything out. I didn't see too many small kids, so hopefully they all closed their ears. That's what a major does to you. You keep hitting good shots and keep missing them, you know. Nobody's made of rock out there. We all have our feelings. As I say, I had a moment of weakness out there. I felt better after that, though."

His play didn't get much better, as he offset a birdie at No. 11 from 10 feet with a bogey at the par-3 13th, where he found the sand. A wonderful 5-wood to eight feet at the 248-yard 16th hole also went for naught, and after a 70 for 142, he shared 13th place. "I'd just like to make a couple [of putts]," he said. "I'd feel a lot better about my whole game." Els was striking the ball crisply, hoping for some wind to mix things up a bit Saturday. The forecast was dire, but the actual weather for the third round wasn't as nasty as predicted.

Paul Broadhurst, a European Tour journeyman, would end up in Els' pairing Saturday and Sunday, and they would share good times and bad. Ben Hogan famously carved drivers between the out-of-bounds fence and bunkers that bisect the fairway of the 578-yard sixth hole. In the third round Broadhurst -- who started quickly with birdies at the first and third holes -- and Els weren't so successful at the sixth. First Broadhurst, then Els, hit tee shots O.B. just as a right-to-left wind intensified.

"I was trying to cut it into the breeze. That was the wrong choice of shot," Els explained later. "I just should have rode the wind. If it goes right, it goes in the bunker -- you can still make 5. I was trying to cut it, [but] got quick and flipped it. Just a bad, bad shot."

He exacerbated things by pushing his provisional into the distant bunker on the right side. From there Els played back to the fairway, hit his fifth shot from about 200 yards into a greenside bunker and missed a five-footer for a double bogey. Mark Woods in Scotland on Sunday wrote that "Hogan's Alley" was a cul-de-sac for Els because of the triple bogey, but it actually served as a roundabout for the rest of the third round for him.

A birdie at No. 8 from 18 feet was soon followed by three straight birdies starting at No. 11. He had a good chance for four in a row at No. 14 from eight feet, but missed it. "Shows you what an 8 can do. It frees your stroke up," Els said of his renewed putting success. "I just kind of let it go and felt the putterhead. I really felt good on the greens today." Another gorgeous 5-wood on the 16th hole -- a high, slight draw that is Els' stock shot -- finished 18 inches from the cup. His 68 moved him into T-3 with six others at three-under 210, six strokes behind Sergio Garcia.

"If I could just have that one swing over on No. 6," Els lamented later. "I'd take a 6 right now -- 8 is hard to come back from. But I did, I really played nice. It was nice with Paul. When I got it going, he got it going. We pulled each other along on the back nine."

A quick swing from Els still looks like Super-Slo-Mo for a mere mortal, but he got away with a clunker on the finishing hole Saturday. After a good drive, he attempted to hit a 7-iron from 176 yards into a slight breeze. He chunked it so badly it finished about a yard short of the Barry Burn. "That was probably a worse shot than the one I pulled out-of-bounds on No. 6," he said. "That's a good lesson for you guys. [If] you try to hit something too hard, that's what happens. Was a good lay up, though, wasn't it?"

He pitched close for a par to stay in distant touch of Garcia. "It seems like Sergio is playing really solid," Els said. "But he's going for his first major. I'm sure there is going to be a lot going through his mind tonight. I remember when I was trying to win my first one. But still you can't hope for him to play badly. You've got to try to get something going [yourself]. I've got to do that tomorrow and hope for a bit more breeze, just to press the leaders a bit more."

Els was heartened by his conclusion to the Barclay's Scottish Open the previous week. "I was six behind coming into the final round and almost got there [to win]," he said. I've got to try to emulate that round."

"It helps to have good finishes," Liezl said of his third-place finish after a final-round 65 at Loch Lomond, "because it shows you have your game in good order. But, of course, he wants to win. If you don't want to win, you shouldn't be out here."

By the numbers, Els' status as one of the brightest lights of his generation is secure. He was ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for a week after he captured his second U.S. Open title in 1997 and for eight weeks the next season. He has been in the ranking's top 10 for 681 weeks, the most time of any golfer since its inception in 1986, and he began play at Carnoustie at No. 4 behind Woods, Mickelson and Jim Furyk. Els has 23 victories on the European Tour, 15 on the PGA Tour. The questions are what kind of wattage Els will carry when judged against the all-time greats and whether he can resume his consistent winning form and extend it into his 40s, á la Vijay Singh.

Els' countryman, Gary Player, made headlines last week with his assertion that he knew a golfer whose name he wouldn't disclose was taking performance-enhancing drugs, but he also addressed the subject of the definition of a superstar. "It's very hard when you talk about superstars," he said, "and I don't know how you'd classify a superstar. In my opinion, you classify it as any man who wins five majors [or more]."

The odds seemed against Els moving closer to that threshold, given that his deficit to Garcia, 10 years his junior, was six strokes. The margin to be closed doesn't tell all in these situations, however. Only Steve Stricker, who was three behind, stood between Els and Garcia, and like the Spaniard, Stricker had never won a major. The same was true for the six players tied with Els at three under through 54 holes: Chris DiMarco, Paul McGinley, Stewart Cink, K.J. Choi, Broadhurst and Harrington. If an experienced player was going to trail by half a dozen shots with 18 holes left, this was about as rosy a scenario as could be drawn up.

Els seemed to sense that, and his play in the early going Sunday afternoon showed he was eager to pounce. The persistent rain, which fell through the night and morning, stopped shortly before Els' 1:50 p.m. tee time. An early starter, Richard Green of Australia, shot a final-round 64, matching the course record fired by Stricker Saturday.