Els fails his masters examination again, raising questions of his likely longevity in majors

Published on Saturday 12 April 2008 19:56

THERE is always carnage at the cut on Friday at the Masters, reputations getting shredded and whole careers getting giant question marks placed above them. There was nothing new in Sergio Garcia bowing out early or in Luke Donald failing, again, to live up to the hype.

Daniel Chopra and Martin Kaymer, the two brightest rookies from Europe, couldn't make it either. The one that stood out, though, was Ernie Els.

Two rounds of 74 and he was gone, just like last year. Els never had much presence at Augusta this year, he never created much of a stir in the preamble and he just vanished in the aftermath. Without a word, he was gone; like a no-mark instead of the multiple major winner that he is.

We have to fear for Els. He has Butch Harmon in his team these days and though their work together is in its infancy there has to be real fear that we've seen the best of him. Harmon has been working on Els's posture, on his hips and shoulders. They'd got out of sync. They needed stabilising. Els thought he was some way down the road to recovery.

He brought new equipment with him this year, a Callaway FTI square head driver with an adjustable shaft. He's been using a new ball, too.

The Callaway i ball is softer, comes off the club face a little lower and spins a little better. Tooled up with new gear, Els found no difference in the end result. It's worrying now because his Masters form has gone from consistently brilliant to monotonously awful. A pair of 74s this year, a 78 and a 76 last year, no round better than 71 the year before (he tied for 27th) and nothing better than a 72 the year before that (he was tied for 47th).

When Donald made his exit on Friday he refused to talk to the media.

He simply muttered "74" (the number of shots he'd taken) and kept walking. Els didn't even say that much. And the worst thing was that nobody seemed to mind.

It's too early to say he's gone as a force in major championship golf but he looks a forlorn figure. Four years ago he staged a heroic fight against Phil Mickelson on the back stretch on Sunday. Seems like an eternity ago now.