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| January 14, 2003 | Tuesday | Ziqa'ad 10, 1423 |
Triumphant Els breaks PGA tour record
KAPALUA (Hawaii), Jan 13: South Africa’s Ernie Els shattered the PGA Tour scoring record and in the process won his first Mercedes Championship on Sunday with an amazing 31-under-par 261 total.
Eight shots back and tied for second place were Rocco Mediate, who fired a final-round 10-under 63, and South Korean K.J. Choi, who could only manage an even-par 73 when most players were scoring low.
Fiji’s Vijay Singh and South Africa’s Retief Goosen finished nine strokes behind Els in the winner’s only event in a tie for fourth place. In winning his 11th PGA Tour title, Els was never really pressed.
He began the day two shots ahead of Choi, and after coasting through the front nine with a one-under 35, had actually extended his lead by another shot.
Choi made his only move on Els with back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes to move to within one shot.
Then Els birdied the 12th to extend his lead and gained another shot at the 13th with a par to Choi’s bogey.
When Els birdied the 14th and Choi made another bogey, the margin was five strokes and the tournament all but won.
Indeed, his winning total was five shots better David Duval’s previous record of 26-under in the 1999 Mercedes.
Els also broke a two-year-old record held by Joe Durant for the lowest score over the first 72 holes in a PGA tournament.
Durant was 29-under through four rounds of the five-round Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Els has now dismantled his second field in a row with eight-stroke victories.
Last month he won by the same margin in the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa after shooting a 63 in the final round.
Playing with new equipment and a renewed vitality, Els methodically took apart a course and a field here that were both defenceless.
With drives that went over 350 yards or putts that fell from all angles, Els sent a message to the rest of the golfing world that at 33 years of age he is going to be a force in 2003.
Mediate was so shocked by his performance he didn’t know he had finished at 10-under until his caddie told him after the round.
The opposite of Mediate, Choi could not come close to duplicating his feat in the third round when he shot a course record 11-under 62.
Leading fine scores (U.S. unless stated):
261 Ernie Els (South Africa) 64 65 65 67
269 K.J. Choi (South Korea) 67 67 62 73 Rocco Mediate 72 69 65 63
270 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 68 70 67 65, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 70 65 66 69
271 Jonathan Byrd 68 69 71 63, Jim Furyk 64 72 67 68, Chris Riley 65 70 67 69, Bob Estes 66 66 70 69
272 Gene Sauers 65 72 69 66, Jerry Kelly 65 70 67 70
273 Jeff Sluman 72 67 70 64, Kevin Sutherland 71 66 69 67
274 Loren Roberts 68 70 67 69
275 Luke Donald (Britain) 68 72 69 66
276 Charles Howell III 73 66 67 70
277 Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand) 68 70 69 70, Craig Perks (New Zealand) 69 71 67 70
278 Justin Leonard 71 68 71 68, Chris Smith 69 71 69 69
279 Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 69 69 75 66, J.P. Hayes 72 67 70 70, Dan Forsman 69 71 69 70
280 Len Mattiace 75 68 69 68
281 Matt Kuchar 70 70 73 68, Craig Parry (Australia) 71 69 71 70, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 71 73 66 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 66 72 70 73
282 Ian Leggatt (Canada) 69 67 79 67, Spike McRoy 72 71 73 66, Chris DiMarco 70 75 69 68, John Rollins 72 72 69 69
283 Bob Burns 71 72 74 66, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 74 71 69 69
286 Matt Gogel 69 75 73 69
290 Rich Beem 74 71 70 75.—Reuters
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