Els finishes job at Arnold Palmer
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational | Round Four | 30 Mar 2010
Ernie Els has completed an impressive Florida Swing with his victory at the Arnold Palmer Championship at Bay Hill Lodge this morning. It was his second victory in three starts since the PGA Tour moved east.
Els returned to the golf course at 10.00am to start up where he left off at 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon when inclement weather brought play to a halt. When he left the course Els had just dropped three shots in two holes but today he parred his final four holes to win by two over Edoardo Molinari and Kevin Na with Retief Goosen and Chris Couch a shot further back in a share of 4th.
“You know, I had I think a four- or five-shot lead through 12 holes yesterday, looking very good, said Els after his win. “I told the guys there, I was a bit aggressive on 13. The wind was blowing into us yesterday afternoon, and just went into the bunker. I had a perfect lie, but just not a very good yardage, and I basically hit my ball up. I missed the shot, and came up short, where you can’t miss it.”
“When I made that mistake, the whole thing changed. Then I bogeyed 14. Then they blew the siren, and now all of the sudden I only have a two-shot lead, and Kevin Na and a lot of other players in the mix, as well.”
“The whole thing changed from being very comfortable to being just as tense as I’ve been for a long time. Last night was quite an evening. We went for dinner, but I couldn’t get the mistakes out of my head and what I had to do this morning to win and what the weather was going to be like. Just a lot of uncertainty.”
“I think mentally, this was a huge struggle for me today, and yesterday. Like I mentioned, I had it all covered, basically and made those mistakes. Hopefully I can learn from that. But I will take a lot out of this. It just shows you that I still have a little bit of fight left.”
Na actually drew within one shot of the South African when he birdied the 16th but a bogey at the last after being forced to lay up not only cost him any chance of victory but it cost him outright second place.
Molinari, whose brother Francesco had finished 4th in Spain on Sunday birdie two of his last three holes to grab a share of second position, earning US$528,000 in the process. The 2005 US Amateur Champion has experienced a superb twelve months, dominating the Challenge Tour in Europe, winning the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan, winning the World Cup with brother Francesco, making a solid start to his rookie European Tour season and now this great result.
Molinari will now move to # 36 and although his finish would have earned a start at this week’s Shell Houston Open, he will instead take the week off to prepare for his second appearance at Augusta having played as an amateur in 2006.
For Els though he moves to number 7 in the world and looks ahead to the Masters with some excitement. Two times a runner up at Augusta National the South African has found the sort of form that now makes him a favourite to break through.
“On 18 today, I was standing on the tee and I was thinking, don’t think about this week. Think about how you’re going to hit this tee shot at Augusta, because it’s exactly the same shot.
I had to hit a little fade and I opened up my body nicely and hit a perfect fade down there. I was just trying to imagine that I had to hit this shot at Augusta. So there’s a lot of little games that you play with yourself, as you know, and this week was good for me."
“I think I might go up tomorrow, said Els re his preparation for the first major of the year. “I’ll drive down; Liezl and Samantha, they went to Europe for the weekend, can you believe it. So they are coming home today and be home tonight. I might go up tomorrow morning, and then go to Houston maybe Wednesday morning just before the Pro-Am.”
