When Tiger Woods reached the turn in the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic yesterday, one observer was heard to mutter that it was all over for the world No 1. He should have known better. Woods had three-putted on the 9th for a bogey five and, as at the start of the day, remained four strokes behind Ernie Els, for whom the Majlis Course at the Emirates club has proved kind over the years, providing him with three wins.
What needed to be taken into account, however, was the psychological hold that Woods has over the South African, whose mind coach, Jos Vanstiphout, once referred to it as Tigeritis - and his absolute brilliance.
And so, having given the world No 5 a head start, Woods started to reel him in until, eventually, Els was left needing a birdie at the last hole to force a play-off. In the event, he was not up to the challenge. He found the water well short of the green with his second shot and bogeyed the hole and Woods waltzed off with his fifth victory in succession and his seventh in eight starts. Where will it end?
Woods’s charge began with a straightforward birdie at the par-five 10th and picked up pace with an exquisite chip-in from 20 feet at the 12th. He added another birdie at the 13th and rolled in a putt of around 12 feet for his third on the trot at the 14th.
The roar that greeted it - there is nothing like the sound that accompanies a Woods birdie - came just as Els was preparing to play a shot out of a bunker at the par-three 11th. He played a beauty, the ball finishing barely three feet above the hole, but as he waited to putt he looked across to the scoreboard and muttered to his caddie. Woods had moved to within one shot of the lead, on 12 under par.
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With Woods then about to tee off on an adjacent hole - if Els had craned his neck, he could have watched - it was hard not to think that the South African had been slightly spooked. It might explain a putt that never threatened the hole, or the one from five feet for par that he missed at the next in what, until then, had been a round free of blemish.
With back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th, Els repaired the damage. But his ears would have been bringing him disturbing news, first as Woods recorded his fifth birdie on the back nine at the 17th, then as he finished in spectacular, crowd-thrilling, style at the par-five 18th.
Facing a downhill chip for his third shot from the back of the fast and sloping green, Woods was fearful that he might overrun the hole and finish in the water. With one foot in a bunker, his flop-shot landed just a yard short of a tiny section of green from which the ball would have run towards the hole, leaving him with a downhill putt of around 25 feet. As is his wont, he duly willed the ball home before exploding with his full array of celebrations - pirouettes, fist pumps and uppercuts. And no wonder. He had come home in 31 strokes for a 65 and, on 14 under par, had taken the lead for the first time in the round.
Briefly, Louis Oosthuizen, another South African, had held the clubhouse lead on 12 under par, but now it was down to Els. History promised little. He once surrendered an eight-stroke final-round lead in losing to Woods in Thailand ten years ago and lost in a play-off to him here in 2006 when, incidentally, he found water with his second shot to the 18th green. And, in 2000, he twice finished runner-up to Woods in major championships.
Woods had sympathy with Els for his predicament at the final hole. He had visited the water there himself the previous day and said that the wind above the grandstand can affect the ball flight badly. “He had a really tough shot,” he said. “I’ve been there before, put the ball into water on the last hole with a chance to win a tournament.” Els has, too, as recently as the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa before Christmas.
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Martin Kaymer, of Germany, followed up his win in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago by finishing runner-up, one stroke behind Woods, an eagle three at the 18th bringing him home in 66.