GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ernie Els shook hands with Aaron Baddeley after beating him on the second hole of a playoff to win the Sony Open yesterday.
Els beats Baddeley Ernie Els knows exactly how Aaron Baddeley feels.
in Sony playoff
The Big Easy has a hard time,
Els gets it together to challenge Tiger
but finally puts the 21-year-old Aussie
away on the second playoff hole
Kid stayed in until Els' 43-foot putt knocked him out
17th hole hurts both leaders
By Paul Arnett
parnett@starbulletin.comThree years ago at the Mercedes Championships, Els watched helplessly as Tiger Woods hit a 40-footer steady and true for a birdie to win the title in a playoff. Els left his long birdie effort a roll short and Woods went off to have the best year in the history of the PGA Tour, while Els managed six second-place finishes worldwide.
Fast-forward a thousand days to the $4.5 million Sony Open in Hawaii and it's Els who raps one in from 43 feet for a birdie on the second playoff hole to leave Baddeley a little weak in the knees.
The 21-year-old Aussie left his birdie putt from 20 feet a quarter-roll from the hole, giving Els one of the more dramatic wins at the Waialae Country Club. It was the ninth playoff in the history of this PGA Tour stop that began in 1965 with Gay Brewer pocketing a $9,000 first-place check.
Els' check was for a cool $810,000 and gives him a commanding lead on the money list. He is the first golfer to win the first two events on tour since Steve Jones managed it in 1989. He is also the first person to win the first two events he has entered since Woods did it three years ago.
Pretty heady stuff for the man they call the Big Easy. Despite swinging the club as well as he has all year, it was anything but easy thanks to a gutsy performance by Baddeley.
Baddeley spent most of yesterday's final round roughing it.
While Els took the easy route on nearly every hole, Baddeley's tour of duty sent him to the palm trees to the bunkers to the thick spinach that's found growing around nearly every green.
So when Els yanked his drive left into the rough off No. 10 on the second playoff hole, life suddenly got hard. His second shot sailed over the top of the flag toward the edge of the green some 43 feet away, while Baddeley's bunker shot left him 20 feet shy of becoming only the third player in tour history to win his first official event.
Advantage Baddeley?
Perhaps, but for someone who lagged nearly every putt short yesterday, the 33-year-old Els decided to give it a go and rolled in his birdie putt with plenty of steam left on the ball as it slammed into the back of the hole.
"I wasn't really watching it until the crowd behind the hole started making a bit of noise," Baddeley said. "I saw the last 2 feet as it went in. I was trying to hole it anyway. My thought process was to hole it and I said, "Oh well, I have to hole it now. I didn't expect him to make it, to be quite honest."
Els didn't expect Woods to sink his bomb on the first hole of the Plantation Course three years back. He heard Woods tell his caddy he thought he could make it, but like Baddeley yesterday, he never expected it.
"It is really ironic, the last time it happened in Hawaii, Tiger made that putt on me," Els said to an overflowing media room. "I had a chance to tie there and I left it on the edge. I probably said back then, the wheels keep on turning and eventually you will get your chance and it will work out for you.
"What can you say about it? That was quite something. I put myself behind the eight-ball hitting it left (on the second playoff hole). I was trying to stand on that tee shot and I pulled it left. I said to (his caddy) Ricci (Roberts) when we got down there, just to try and give ourselves a putt.
"This morning when I drove it there (off the tee), I drove it almost in the same place where I hit my second shot (in the playoff), so I had a bit of a read from early on. It got about 6 feet away and I was just hoping that I hit it hard enough because I left quite a few putts short today. And it went just boom right into the middle."
The result was the 12th victory on tour for Els, who started the day two behind his playing partner. Baddeley pushed it to three strokes with a birdie on the second hole, but it was pretty much a struggle from there for the youngster from Down Under.
By the fifth hole, Els had erased the deficit and took the lead with a birdie on 10 to go to 16-under. He managed nine consecutive pars, including one on the 72nd hole. Had he rolled in that 11-footer, he would have closed out Baddeley.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ernie Els hit an approach into No. 18 yesterday.
Instead, it twisted short at the hole, giving Baddeley a chance to extend the competition. He did just that with a 10-footer for birdie that he said was a left-center putt toward the hole.
Baddeley, who was wearing his favorite purple-plaid pants, pulled a three-footer on the 17th hole for par. The first time he stood over it, Baddeley had to back away when a door slammed from somewhere. It was reminiscent of John Cook's fate a year ago.
Cook appeared well on his way to winning for his second time here, when a cell phone went off in the middle of his backswing. It resulted in a bogey and left the door open for Jerry Kelly to win the 2002 Sony Open by one shot.
"That didn't really bother me," Baddeley said. "I got back over the putt and just pulled it. I was glad to get a birdie chance on the 18th. I pretty much had to grind it out all day. I learned from this final round that I showed great patience today and when your 'A' game is not there, you just have to hang in there."
Els had his 'A' game from tee to green, but too often he left his birdie putts just shy of the hole. The one on No. 10 didn't come up short and might have sailed 5 feet past the hole had it not slammed in.
For most of the day, it was a two-man race. American Chris DiMarco made a nice run on the frontside, pulling within two of the leaders. But his 1-under effort on the back left him at 14-under for the tournament, two shots behind the leaders.
Kelly defended his title quite well, managing to tie Aussie Robert Allenby for fourth with an eagle putt from 25 feet on the final hole. The putt was worth $36,000 for the Wisconsin native, who closed with a final-round 65. Only two golfers bettered it yesterday.
One was Stuart Appleby, who finished second to Paul Azinger at the 2000 Sony Open. The Aussie celebrated his recent marriage with a final-round 63. It was the best round of the tournament and gave him a sixth-place finish.
The other was a 6-under 64 by Dan Forsman. He was tied for 36th going into the final round and moved up to a tie for 12th with Aussie Peter Lonard and Las Vegas resident Robert Gamez.
But on this day, Els' 67 over the final 18 holes proved to be the key score.
"This is what it's all about, isn't it?" Els said. "This is why you practice and this is why you spend hours on the range for this kind of situation where it is really tight and no one wants to give up anything. I knew on 13 when Aaron scrambled to get that par that he wasn't going to go away.
"I really felt that I was swinging well today and I could see that Aaron wasn't too comfortable with his swing, but he is young and full of confidence and he has so much talent that he just stuck in there and never let go. Now, I'll fly halfway around the world (to Singapore). Ricci will be the only one with me. We'll drink a few beers and talk about the round. It will be a lot more fun because we won."
Sony Open
