The Week: New Year's Resolution

Mercedes champ Ernie Els is loaded for Tiger this season

By Alan Shipnuck

Wielding a new driver, Els overpowered the Plantation course's par-5s. Fred Vuich GOLF PLUS EXTRA Big Play: Brad Redding TRUST ME The outrageously low scores at the Mercedes are just the start, as all of golf's scoring records will be shattered this year. Drivers are bigger than ever, and the latest solid-core balls are even hotter, but the difference will be deadlier short games, thanks to specialized putters and four-wedge arsenals. NEXT UP PGA: Sony Open European: Alfred Dunhill Championship INSTANT POLL Which 2003 major was the best? The Masters The U.S. Open The British Open The PGA View Results

With 2003 only a few hours old, Ernie Els arrived at his beach home in Herolds Bay, South Africa, and found an unusual New Year's present -- a trespasser conked out in his bed. Police removed the intruder without incident, but as omens go, it wasn't the best. This season is perhaps the most important in Els's mostly brilliant career, and a time of transition for a new father who says he has "new equipment, new clothing, new shoes, new everything this year." That's why his victory at last week's season-opening Mercedes Championships is so tantalizing.

Els burst onto the scene at the 1994 U.S. Open as a fearless 24-year-old who was supposed to overwhelm the sport, but for all the victories that have followed, he has given little indication that he's willing to pay the price to usurp Tiger Woods as the world's best player. This ambivalence has been reflected in the World Ranking -- Els was No. 1 for exactly one week, in June '97, following his second U.S. Open victory. But last week on Maui, with Woods and Phil Mickelson missing, Els strutted around like the tournament's alpha male on his way to a dominant, wire-to-wire win.

With rounds of 64-65-65-67 on the par-73 Plantation course at Kapalua, Els set an alltime PGA Tour record with a 31-under total, and he saved his most impressive stretch for the back nine on Sunday. After a game K.J. Choi birdied the 11th hole to move within a stroke of him, Els birdied four of the next five holes, storming to an eight-shot victory. "I used to be a great front-runner," Els says. "I had a couple of mishaps. But then the last year or so I became a good front-runner again."

Els has never been afraid to voice the churning self-doubt that is usually masked by his Big Easy persona, and some of his scars were inflicted at past Mercedes. In 2000 he played brilliantly down the stretch but was trumped by Woods in an epic playoff, setting the tone for a lost year in which Els finished a discouraged runner-up in three straight majors. The effect? "I was just nowhere," Els said candidly last week. "I was just flat." His malaise carried over into 2001, when he led the Mercedes by four strokes heading to the back nine on Saturday but kicked away the victory.

Els's confidence was not fully restored until his gritty win at last year's British Open, and that breakthrough has left him not sated but rather more determined than ever to realize his awesome potential. Els's game has already been energized by a new Titleist 983K driver and a new ball. For a strapping, 6'3" 210-pounder, Els was a mystifying 84th in driving distance on the Tour last year (and an abysmal 162nd in accuracy). Last week he pounded the ball to places rarely visited on the Plantation course, playing the par-5s in 16 under -- tying a Tour record -- and making four eagles. (He made only six all of last year.)

If Els can continue to improve his driving, he will further narrow the gap on Woods, a distance that is not as great as some might think. Viewed from the parochial perspective of the PGA Tour, Woods seemingly blew away Els in 2002, more than doubling his money ($6.9 million to $3.3 million) and winning five tournaments to Ernie's two. But Els, who keeps houses on three continents plus the Bahamas, is golf's only truly international superstar. The 2002 world money list reflects his brand of globe-trotting. Woods led with $8.3 million, but Els was a credible second with $6.3, a million and a half bucks ahead of Mickelson, who's No. 3. The disparity between Woods and Els is actually less than it appears; the world money list does not include skins games, pro-ams or shootouts, but Woods's total is speciously padded by the $500,000 he won at the four-person, 36-hole Grand Slam of Golf exhibition. As for victories, Woods won six times worldwide last year, Els five.

The balance of power between these two stars is clearly tilting. Woods may miss the entirety of the West Coast swing waiting for his surgically repaired knee to heal. Meanwhile, one week into a happy new year, Els is No. 1 on the money list.

O.B.