Els angered by critics who say Woods' rivals are below par

ERNIE ELS last night hit back at criticism of the standard of rivals to Tiger Woods' dominance of the game.

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer recently attacked the quality of Woods’ nearest challengers, with Nicklaus describing the world number one’s US Masters victory this year “a piece of cake” as all his rivals imploded in the final round. Els was one of those to crumble when he triple-bogeyed the 13th, but feels his efforts and those of certain colleagues were under-appreciated.

“That was my point,” the double US Open winner said yesterday after his second practice round at Muirfield, venue for this week’s Open championship. “If it wasn’t for one guy, I think (Phil) Mickelson would have had two or three majors by now, David (Duval) would probably have won the Masters a couple of times, and who knows, maybe I could have won four or five.

“I think this guy is just a totally different talent than the world has ever seen. In a way I’m kind of glad I’m playing in this era and in another way I’m unhappy.

‘‘After I won my second US Open at Congressional I felt very comfortable I would win all four majors at least once, and it’s still a goal of mine, but it’s changed a little bit now. I think before 1997 it was looking pretty good

because Tiger wasn’t around then and he just came on the scene (winning his first major at the 1997 US Masters).

‘‘It seems now when you play a major, you play the golf course and you play Tiger. You can beat the field but it doesn’t mean you’re going to beat Tiger. He won the US Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach so I could have beaten the field that week, but I still wouldn’t have won the tournament.

“I think the comments were unfair towards myself and some other players. I work hard at my game.

“When I’ve had it going I’ve still got beat. Maybe I’m not good enough, who knows?”