Columnist Peter Benton: Els just may give Tiger challenge in ‘03

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003 | 9:54 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Rumor has it Tiger Woods, who is recovering from knee surgery, will return to the PGA Tour for the Buick Invitational next week.

Whether he will be dethroned in 2003 as the world's top player remains to be seen, but South Africa's Ernie Els is sure making one gigantic effort to topple him.

A year ago, Els didn't play either of the Hawaii tournaments opening the PGA season. This year he is glad he did.

With his victories at the Mercedes Championship and the Sony Open, Els is the first Tour player in 14 years to win the first two Tour events to start a season. (Steve Jones won back-to-back tournaments to open the 1989 season.)

Els is also the first player since Woods in 2000 to win the first two Tour events he has played. Three years ago, Woods won the Mercedes Championship -- in a playoff over Els -- and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am a month later.

Els followed his two opening triumphs this year with a second-place finish at the Caltex Singapore Masters (he bogied the final hole to lose by a stroke) and this past week he defeated a stellar field to capture the European PGA's Heineken Classic in Australia.

That's three victories and a runner-up finish in four starts. That, in anybody's book, is terrific golf.

However, to this scribe's way of thinking, Els' globe-trotting for appearance money at this time of year could very well be a detriment down the road. How many times have we read of world-class golfers who, at the top of their game, have burnt out chasing those extra appearance fee dollars?

The Big Easy isn't scheduled to play on our Tour again until the World Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship (Feb. 24-March 2), where he will try to make it three in a row.

Through 288 holes, Els is a staggering 71-under par. Last year in 16 Tour events (excluding the Accenture Match Play Championship and the International, which uses the modified Stableford scoring system) Els was only 59 under for the entire season.

With his three early victories, Els, the No. 2-ranked player in the world, has won multiple Tour titles for the third time in his career. He has also won nine tournaments since the beginning of 2002.