Ernie not acting the Mich

Charlie Mulqueen

And last night, as he prepared for the €3 million Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe at St Leon-Rot near Heidelberg, the South African was happy to stress: "Phil obviously played a little better than me. All credit to him, he went out and won the Masters. Nobody gave it to him and he didn't falter. I think it will probably go down as one of the better Masters and it was nice to be a part of it. But, yeah, it was a difficult one to swallow.

"I was sitting at the putting green hoping to get into a play-off at least and have another shot at it but he hit two beautiful shots in there and made his putt. But looking back, I played almost as good as I could and got beaten by a better player on the day."

Els is starting a busy six-week spell which will see him play in Europe and the States in his build-up to next month's US Open. He has always been a globetrotter who enjoys palatial homes in Wentworth, London; George, South Africa and Lake Nona, Florida but makes no secret of his liking for the delightful university town of Heidelberg.

"I came here for the first time five years ago and we stayed near the river where there are good restaurants and nice scenery," he recounted. "That's one thing I like about Europe. In America, a lot of the weeks are very similar. You can go from Ohio to Texas and it's much the same. But in Europe, and especially here in Heidelberg, we've got a different feel, different food and different culture."

Els took three weeks off after Augusta and only returned to action in the Houston Open at the weekend. Even though he finished fifth behind Sergio Garcia, Ernie lost his customary cool at various stages, chiefly because of his problems on the greens. "When you are hitting it to ten, 12 and 15 feet and you keep missing, it gets to you a bit," he admitted. "Sometimes it's almost more fun hitting the ball all over the place and getting up and down."

You have the feeling, though, that Els will rectify the putting difficulties. A long course (7,255 yards) with meaningful rough is ideally suited to the South African, although it remains to be seen whether any player can match the fabulous 19 under winning total of Tiger Woods in 2002.

A young man sufficiently talented to do so is 23 year-old Australian Adam Scott, who won four times in Europe before skipping across the Atlantic where he captured last year's Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. Then he walked off with the Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass in April. He subsequently missed the cut in the Masters by five shots and this is his first competitive outing since.

"It's all a learning process and hopefully in the future I'll know I need the time to wind down after a big win", he observed. "I went home to Australia for a month and played a little golf with my friends and pretty much spent the rest of the time on the beach. This week, I'd just like to get four solid rounds away again. I've had a long break but my game feels good."

Pádraig Harrington, the holder, obviously represents the best chance of an Irish win, with his second place in the US TPC still his outstanding achievement of 2004. Likewise, Darren Clarke hasn't done a whole lot since the early weeks of the year although fifth in the recent British Masters suggests better things around the corner.

The tournament offers Graeme McDowell the ideal opportunity to build on his victory in the Italian Open and the other Irish in the field are Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane.