Els chips away at Tiger’s aura with major declaration

ERNIE ELS last night threw down the gauntlet to Tiger Woods when he declared that “my next goal is to win all four major championships at least once”.

Els chipped away, to some extent anyway, at Tiger's aura of invincibility at the recent Open Championship at Muirfield although he was less than assured coming down the stretch on the final evening, even though Woods was well out of contention. Nor do you get the feeling that Els is entirely convinced that he has the armoury to take on and beat Woods with anything approaching confidence.

"I'm just trying to get better but as I've said before, if Tiger is on his game, he's still going to win," Els conceded.