Fired-up Tiger back on trail as Els takes well-earned rest

ERNIE ELS, taking a well-earned rest this week, could lose top spot on the US Tour while he puts his feet up.

But it is not the prospect of Canadian Mike Weir or Fijian Vijay Singh going to number one by winning the Nissan Open that is the main attraction at the Riviera club in LA.

It is, of course, whether Tiger Woods can emulate Els' feat last month by winning his first two events of the season.

Woods, winner of the money list title for the last four years, had knee surgery in December, but on his comeback appearance last weekend captured the Buick Invitational with shots to spare.

The victory was seen as even more significant because it came just a few hours after the globe-trotting Els had made it four wins out of five events this year with a 10-stroke success in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia.

The two come together at next week's Accenture World MatchPlay Championship in Carlsbad, but as the top two seeds will have to reach the final to meet.

The clash all of golf wants to see may have to wait for the Dubai Desert Classic in a fortnight although a question has to remain over that tournament because of possible war in nearby Iraq.

The search for someone to sustain a challenge to Woods has been going on ever since the 27-year-old lifted the first of his eight major titles so far by 12 shots at the 1997 Masters.

David Duval looked capable for a while and even took the world number one spot for a short time, but now he languishes at 29th in the world.

Phil Mickelson threatened, but until he wins a major nobody will put the left-hander in the same league even as Woods.

The same goes for Sergio Garcia, who does at least have age on his side, but when Els won the Open at Muirfield last summer it appeared to lift a weight of expectancy off his shoulders and so far this year his game has gone to another level.

"He's putting up some great scores," Woods said of Els, Mickelson, who did go face-to-face with Woods on Sunday and not for the first time was crushed, noted that: "Ernie is playing great golf right now," but cautioned that Woods still has another level to which he can raise his game.

Fred Couples, now combining playing with work as a commentator, said: "Tiger has been doing it for six years. Ernie has been the second or third-best player in those six years, but really has never been close. If you think he's closing the gap, then he's closing the gap.

"But he's not beating Tiger in any of these tournaments. Colin Montgomerie plays his first event of the season on the course where in 1995 he painfully lost a play-off to Steve Elkington for the US PGA championship.

Darren Clarke will hope to make up for the disappointment of being disqualified from last week's Buick Invitational after a scorecard mistake.