As for the other favorite, Els has been more conspicuous for the personnel changes made to his inner circle than his golf. His alliance with swing coach Butch Harmon has, in Harmon's words, yielded inconsistent results. Late last month, Els brought back longtime caddie Ricci Roberts, who was on the bag for all three of Ernie's major titles, and rehired sport psychologist Jos Vanstiphout. The Big Easy is ranked sixth in the world, still capable of winning any tournament where pars have value, but he hasn't been in serious contention at a major since returning from his own knee surgery in the summer of 2005.
In launching his latest salvo at commissioner Tim Finchem last week, veteran Tom Pernice Jr. revived one of his favorite gripes: the need for a rule that would require all tour pros to play in every event on the schedule over a four- or five-year period. It's an edict thinly disguised as an attempt to make Woods enter tournaments against his will, ostensibly to bail out title sponsors of lesser events.
"Maybe we need to play more than 15 events [the required minimum]," Pernice said. "Maybe we need to play 20. It's not Tiger's fault or [Mickelson's] fault. It's the tour's fault, the way the regulations are. You only have to play 15 events and there are 30 or 35 sponsors out here. There has to be something the tour can do to help those [non-elite] sponsors."
Talk about timing. Pernice made his comments at a tournament hosted by Woods, and very few, if any, of the big names showed up. Go figure. While the cat's away, the mice won't play, either, but once 23-year-old Anthony Kim had applied the finishing polish to his second impressive victory in two months, one easily could see the kid becoming a star, perhaps even a rival to his boyhood hero.
While the cat's away, some mice become men, you might say.
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