Thoughts on Carnoustie

A 25-foot uphill putt at the second hole got Els going. It warranted a fist pump. A wedge to the third hole set up a birdie from six feet. Perhaps feeling the sting of his mishap at No. 6 Saturday, Broadhurst laid up off the tee this time. Els, though, took driver. A marshal at the tee signaled that the ball was going left, but the 286-yard drive split Hogan's Alley. From there Els hit a 5-wood 30 yards short of the green. The hole was cut deep on the right side, beyond three bunkers and a down slope. Els had to be precise with a low, checking wedge shot and he was, the ball settling four feet from the cup for his third birdie of the day.

He was four strokes behind at that juncture, but after pars at the next four holes and some slippage by Garcia, he trailed by two. "It's all getting a little bit squeaky now," one of the radio play-by-play announcers said just about the time Els chipped close to save par at the 10th hole.

Carnoustie's 11th, a 383-yard par 4 that doglegs gently to the right, played as the fourth-easiest hole for the week. A shorter club off the tee afforded a wider target, but Els hit his driver every day and had no more than 65 yards left for his approach. His Sunday clout left him about 55 yards to a back-right hole location. Els' wedge was on line and finished 15 feet short of the hole. With Garcia continuing to leak oil, a birdie would have put Els in a tie for the lead with the Spaniard and young Argentine Andres Romero at eight under.

"I hit such a beautiful tee shot and a good second [on 11]," Els said. "I thought I made the putt, [but] it stayed on the right. I think if I made that putt, it could have been different because I would have had the momentum going again."

Els saved par on the difficult 12th hole with a pitch and a six-footer after his second shot stayed about a yard short of going into some gorse, keeping him one back. The 13th hole at Muirfield was the scene of some good fortune for Els in the final round en route to his 2002 Open triumph -- he holed a greenside bunker shot -- but Carnoustie's 13th, a 176-yard par 3, wasn't so friendly. Els' 7-iron shot caught the right-side bunker, leaving him a 40-foot shot across the width of the green. "I just came out of it," he said of the tee shot. "I've been having a tough time trying to cut the ball this week."

His explosion out of the dark, heavy dirt (you won't find any blinding-white designer sand on this old links; the bunkers look ready for some tomato plants) ran 12 feet long.

He missed the par putt, then failed to convert an eagle putt of about the same length on the par-5 14th after an excellent 5-iron approach from the right rough. "Probably hit my worst putt of the week on 14," Els said. "Just never got it on line." He pushed his 3-wood off the 15th tee into some of the tallest rough on the course, shin-high fescue he could barely get an iron through. "And that was basically that," Els said of the ensuing bogey that left him too far behind to be a beneficiary even when Harrington, Garcia and Romero had hiccups on the last two holes, too far behind to thrill the family who held an 8-by-12-foot South African flag along the gallery ropes of Carnoustie's closing holes.

"Almost," Salzmann said behind the 18th green as Els recorded a textbook par to shoot 69. "Almost."

Jos Vanstiphout, Els' longtime mental coach, had stood with Els and his caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald, for a rainy post-round practice session Saturday evening. "Watch him the next couple of weeks," Vanstiphout said. "He'll be back. No, he is back."

You can scrutinize swings and analyze strategies, but only Els knows how he felt coming down the stretch with a legitimate chance to win. When I saw his ball resting on the wrong side of that wire fence at No. 6 Saturday, I really didn't expect him to be challenging for the title about 24 hours later. But he surprised me, and maybe himself.

Putts started dropping, and then they didn't.

"It's hard to be very pleased right now," he said. "I love this championship so much. And I had a chance. I was only one shot out of the lead for a good hour. I started making some putts over the weekend. I just have to stay patient, and it's so tough for me to stay patient. But at least I had a much better major this time. The tee shot into the bunker on 13 is probably the shot I'm going to look back on and not be happy about. But if I had made putts, I really would have been close."

The sun wasn't out very much over four days and 72 holes, but it didn't have to be. Els can still throw a considerable shadow of his own.

"I'm trying my best," he said. "I'm trying to do what I should do. This game is a very difficult game at times. It's like J.P., my caddie said to me: 'We are getting close.' I'll keep saying that and saying that. I am getting closer. I've got to get myself in these positions more often. I had a good week last week. This week I played a little bit defensive coming in. I could have been a bit more aggressive. And I think when the putter starts changing, a lot of things will start changing."

The Brits would say Els had been there or thereabouts, and it isn't a bad neighborhood.