Sawgrass: Els escapes as second round staged
Ernie Els was the luckiest man at Sawgrass today after it was decided that the second round of the €6.5m Players Championship, golf’s richest event, would start all over again.
The world number three had been in danger of double-bogeying the opening hole yesterday when play was suspended because of thunderstorms.
After a seven-hour wait for conditions to improve, the 146-strong field was told there would be no resumption before this morning.
And when they returned, officials had ruled that placing of the ball would be needed on the saturated fairways and so the 44 minutes of action yesterday was cancelled.
As a consequence, Els did not have to count two of the worst shots he has hit all year.
The South African, one under par after his opening 71 on Thursday and seven adrift of American Steve Jones, had blocked a wild drive off the opening tee 80 yards right of where he was aiming.
The ball finished on pine needles and because a bush was in the way, the South African could not go for the green and decided to play back onto the fairway.
Playing partner Lee Janzen was there preparing for his next shot and did not see the ball coming.
“I thought it was going to hit him on the head,” said Els’ caddie Ricci Roberts.
“I shouted ‘Fore’, but there wasn’t time for him to get out of the way. Thankfully, though, the ball hit the ground just in front of him and caught him on the leg.”
Janzen was okay to continue and hit his approach to the edge of the green, but Els’ 118-yard pitch flew horribly right again and when the siren to suspend play sounded he had already chipped to 12 feet and needed to hole that to avoid a double-bogey six.
To his immense relief, however, his next shot was not that putt, but the first tee shot again.
With more storms forecast for later today, tomorrow and Monday the tournament was facing more serious interruptions.
The intention was to complete the second round before nightfall so that a decision could then be taken on whether to go for 36 holes tomorrow, possibly with only the leading 60 and ties surviving the halfway cut rather than the usual 70, or schedule a Monday finish.
But with next week’s tournament – the final warm-up for the Masters, of course - only an hour’s flight away in Atlanta play could even go on until Tuesday if necessary.
“We’re keeping all our options open,” said tournament director Mark Russell, who is getting used to making such decisions this season.
The Players is the seventh event of the 13 so far on the 2005 US Tour to suffer a delay.
None of those at the very top of the leaderboard got to hit a shot yesterday, Jones remaining one ahead of Lee Westwood, Fred Funk and Zach Johnson.
Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia are two back, Padraig Harrington and world number one Vijay Singh three behind at five under and both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson two under.
David Howell was not so happy about the restart. He had just birdied the long 11th, his second, to get back to one over, with level par the likely cut-off mark.
The reprieved and relieved Els could not have struck a better drive second time around, being closer to the green in one than he was in two 23 hours earlier.
He then pitched to 12 feet and although he missed the putt a four was still a distinct improvement.
While he rejoiced Jesper Parnevik cursed. After grabbing a birdie at the long second yesterday and moving into the hunt for the title at four under he ran up a double-bogey seven there after his drive hooked into the trees.
The Swede did birdie the next, though, to get back to two under.
Howell had started with a par on the 10th yesterday, but he bogeyed it this time after hooking his drive into sand. It put him three over and down in 123rd place.
Paul Casey, in the group behind, repeated his opening four, but at two over he needed to find some inspiration as well.
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