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 The wildly hooked drive that triggered Ernie Els's weekend collapse was the result of a flaw that must be fixed if he is to challenge Tiger Woods
By Steve Bosdosh
Forget the media hype, the fighting words from the man himself and his jaw-dropping two-month tear to start this season -- Ernie Els is miles away from being a rival to Tiger Woods. Els has crippling weaknesses that were exposed at Bay Hill, beginning with a wild tee shot on the 6th hole of the third round that began an irreversible nosedive. After months of breathless speculation, Els and Woods were finally paired together in Saturday's final group. On the 6th hole, a 558-yard par-5, Els hooked his drive into the middle of the lake, a mile from terra firma. He had to scramble to make bogey. Woods, meanwhile, parlayed a textbook drive into an easy birdie. Els never recovered from that two-stroke swing, going five over par in his next 30 holes to free-fall to 38th place. In the same span Woods went six under and cruised to an 11-shot victory. Els needs to steel himself mentally so that one bad shot doesn't cause him to self-destruct, but he also has a nagging mechanical flaw that needs to be corrected: His swing is too handsy, relying on timing and rhythm, so he's prone to hitting big hooks under pressure. "That's my bad shot, if you look at history," he said after the third round. Handsy swings with lots of wrist action used to be in vogue, but popular modern theory has the body pivot controlling the club, with a more gradual release of the hands. Woods made the transition to the controlled pivot motion a few years ago, and Els, too, must tighten his action to have any chance of becoming No. 1.
Steve Bosdosh is the director of instruction at Four Streams Golf Club in Beallsville, Md., and one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers. Issue date: March 31, 2003
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David Walberg
