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'Big Easy' Sweeps into Lead at Doral

Ernie Els is back on his game. The big South African fired a 6-under 66 to take the 36-hole lead in the WGC-CA Championship at TPC Blue Monster at Doral in Miami.

In sometimes wet but always blustery conditions, Els, who won the event in 2002 after beating Tiger Woods by two strokes, overcame the weather to card six birdies in a bogey-free round. He sits at 10-under 134 in the $8.5 million event, with $1.4 million going to the winner.

The 40-year-old from Johannesburg echoed the feelings of the rest of the players on the course, admitting he hurried over the final two holes to beat an oncoming storm. "(I) putted quite nicely and managed my game quite well. So, you know, it's in the books, and we were pretty lucky to get done. I mean, we ran the last two holes just to get it in the house. But (I'm) looking forward to the weekend." (See below for Els' complete post-round interview.)

He's a stroke ahead of Australia's Robert Allenby (67). Another shot back are American Bill Haas (66) and first-round leader Charl Schwartzel, also of South Africa.

Allenby had his second consecutive wild round. After carding seven birdies and an eagle yesterday to reach 8-under before closing with four straight bogeys, Allenby's scorecard on Friday was just as varicolored. He had two eagles - on the par-5 first and a hole-in-one on the 230-yard 13th (the first player ever to ace that hole in the tournament) - and six birdies. Unfortunately, Allenby also had three bogeys and a double (on the par-4 16th).

The always-honest Allenby attributed some of his erratic play to the weather. "I've thrown a few little dodgy ones in there, but - do I need to translate that for you, dodgy ones, sort of a couple of crappy ones. But you know, that's what's going to happen out here. You know, the conditions were pretty tough, and they weren't so bad probably for the first sort of three hours, but then that cool front, that change sort of came through and everything sort of changed. The whole golf course changed."

Haas said he had to make adjustments during the round to deal with the shifting winds. "Didn't blow quite as hard," the 2010 champion of the Bob Hope Classic remarked in comparing Friday's round with the opener. "A little different direction. Instead of straight down the holes, they are a little cross; or straight in, they were a little cross, which helps. But when I finished my 17th and 18th hole were straight downwind, it totally flipped with this storm coming in. And honestly it started raining and I didn't think we were going to finish on the 17th green, so got a little fortunate to play 18 downwind."

Contributing to the international nature of the leaderboard are Denmark's Soren Hansen (69) and Ireland's Padraig Harrington (68), who are tied for fifth at 138.

Harrington was pleased with his play, notching five birdies and a solitary bogey. "Days like today are positive," said the PGA Tour's 2008 Player of the Year. "That's kind of a little bit like the way I played at the end of last year where finishing up the round going, surprised at the score I shot, let's say, rather than having shot 73 or 74 and thinking I should have shot 70. I kind of feel like I so have shot 70 today and I shot 68. That's kind of the way. So, yeah, things are on the up."

The United Nations angle continued in the elite 68-player field. Tied for seventh at 139 are Japan's Yuta Ikeda (68), American J.B. Holmes (70), Fijian Vijay Singh (71), Canada's Mike Weir (66), South African Tim Clark (69) and Australia's John Senden (70).

Although he called the conditions "a bear," Weir played very well en route to tying Els for the low round of the day. "That wind was really difficult," the diminutive left-hander from Ontario said. "There was a few times out there it looked like it was going to bluster up there and start to pick up and then that front came through and it laid back down can changed a little bit. I'm happy with that round."

Defending champion Phil Mickelson followed up his opening 1-under 71 with a 69. He's tied for 14th at 140, six shots behind Els. Among those at 140 is Camilo Villegas (68), winner of last week's Honda Classic.

After signing his scorecard, Els met with reporters and discussed his day.

MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us after a tough day on the golf course, but you're currently tied for the clubhouse lead at 10-under par, good first two days for you. Maybe just some opening comments.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, thanks. Two really good days for me. Especially where I was last week, you know, I didn't have it last week, so I worked really hard, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, for that matter, and really tried to find something. I did find something, so I'm sticking with that. Putted quite nicely and managed my game quite well. So, you know, it's in the books, and we were pretty lucky to get done. I mean, we ran the last two holes just to get it in the house. But looking forward to the weekend.

Q. Can you specifically talk about if there's anything tangible that you did find that's made the difference over the last few days working?

ERNIE ELS: Well, it seems like when I started missing shots, I fall into those same bad habits that's plagued me for my whole career, basics, since I was a junior. Basically the ball position gets out of whack, my posture gets out of whack, and subsequently, my alignment, also, gets out of whack, and those are the three basic fundamentals that you need to have right. And so get that to where it's right, is a feel thing. You've got to move the ball back in your stance and get your posture where it should be, and it feels very awkward. So you've really got to trust what you do, otherwise it's really going to get ugly. That's why I had to spend a lot of time really spending time on it, and basically just hitting golf ball after golf ball. I would say by Wednesday, it started feeling a bit more comfortable, and I was lucky about that, and, you know, now I feel like I can hit the ball with more authority and keep the ball flight down.

Q. Do you feel that you're lucky finishing early in the round compared to some that are still out there slugging it out there as the weather gets worse, and do you feel scores will open up as the weather gets better?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I'm absolutely glad I'm in here. I'm very glad about that. I think the last group only have about four holes left, so I don't think they have it too bad, but I'm glad I'm in. And, yeah, I think, you know, the greens were really fast and firm in practice, and I think tournament officials probably slowed the greens down because of the weather conditions. So I would think that they are going to double-cut and roll them. So I would think the greens will get firmer and faster. And if we have a lot of wind, it will be quite interesting. So there's still a lot to play for.

Q. You talked about having to run the last two holes, basically. It was gray when you started and it got darn close to dark throughout the day and the wind kept changing. How tough is it to play when you know it's coming, and you have to sort of block that out and try to make good golf shots knowing that it's just a matter of time before you get wet out there?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I spoke to my wife this morning, and they are up in Jupiter, which is only 75 miles away, and she said it was awful. So to be honest with you, I thought I was just going to warm up and probably not play, because she kind of reckoned that it would be at nine o'clock. That's a woman with a weather forecast, in any case. (Laughter). So I'm glad about that. Got it done. Yeah, the weirdest thing today was No. 4. Standing on the tee, I'm ready to play, and the wind is coming out of the south. And I'm just about to pull the club back, and I just feel this chill come over me, and I thought, what's going on here. And the wind just changed right there. And then it was blowing out of the north. So very, very strange. I think the only other time I had that happen was in Scotland when the tide changed. I think it was at St. Andrews. Other than that, I've never seen that happen.

Q. Ricci was just explaining how you sort of figured out the ball was to far up in your stance, I guess, at some point here over the last few days and sort of all you've gone through, practice-wise, coming into this week a couple of trips to the Bear's Club, a round at Seminole and all kind of time I guess out here. You're obviously coaching yourself now. Is that easier, harder or do you have habits that you fall into and how did this all come to be diagnosed? Pretty big turnaround from your results of last week?

ERNIE ELS: Dan was caddying for me last week, so we were trying to figure out, and actually on Sunday, even when I shot 75, I started driving the ball better. My irons were still pretty bad. But I knew what to work on. Even myself and Dan, we kind of figured out that, you know, I've got to work on these basics. Basically when I went to go see Butch two years ago, I was in the same situation. Ball position out of whack, my swing all over the place. So it was actually kind of fun to work it out myself. After playing professional golf now for 20 years, you know, you should kind of figure your own swing out by now. So I kind of figured that out. But I just reconfirmed with Butch what I was doing, you know, this week, and he agrees. If I'm going to work with somebody, I'll work with Butch again, so we'll probably work a little bit together again this year. But it's basically the same stuff that we worked on when I totally lost it two years ago.

Q. Is it a minuscule difference you're talking about with the ball position; is that why it's so hard to figure out that's what's wrong? And somebody for your caliber, obviously that happens to the average guy all the time, but do you find it surprising that somebody of your caliber struggles with something like that?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I mean, I guess we are not that different than you guys. (Laughter) That just shows you. You know, sometimes it's the small things you've got to look at, you know, and we always look at the big picture, but I think you've got to look after the small things, and that's as small as it gets in the game of golf. The rest of it, I've been working on my short game a lot, my putting a lot, my outlook to the game, mentally, and to work out something like that that's very small compared to other things is probably a good thing. But as I say, it's a feel thing, so you have to hit a thousand balls to make it feel comfortable.

Q. Good playing today. How long have you known about Charl Schwartzel, he's one of the guys that's near you on the leaderboard; it seems like maybe you've known about him for a little longer than we have. How impressive is it that a guy would get around yesterday with no bogeys?

ERNIE ELS: I've known Charl a very long time. I've played golf with his dad. That's how far back we go. (Laughter). We won a tournament together in 1987, myself and his dad. It was a better-ball tournament in South Africa. I guess he was born then just about (chuckling). I think he's 25; so that's 23 years ago. I've known Charl for a very long time. I played amateur golf tournaments and professional golf tournaments at the club where he grew up, which is basically east of Johannesburg. It's about 40 miles out of Johannesburg.

You know, he won everything as a junior, very similar to Trevor Immelman. But he's even more impressive because he's longer, he hits the ball a really long way. He's just got so much talent. When he gets a break out here, you know, you're going to see the next superstar out of South Africa, basically. So he's a really good player. He travelled with our foundation kids, although he didn't need the help that our kids needed, he travelled with -- like Louis Oosthuizen was in our foundation at the time and he travelled with our players as a junior and amateur. And he holidays down where we are in South Africa in George, that area. So seen him a long time, and I've seen him -- it's been a long time coming. He's got a lot of talent.

Q. We talked about this last week, but your finishes at the British Open and the PGA last year, do they give you sort of a boost along with playing well right now heading into this major season?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I think so. I mean, even though I haven't been totally on the form I want to be, I've kind of had some good finishes in majors for some reason the last couple of years. I've actually had a couple of chances. But yeah, it gives you a bit of hope. But for some reason, I feel really good mentally this year. I feel a little bit more fresh than I have been. I feel like, you know, I'm up for it a little bit more this year. I'm a bit more excited about my whole game. I feel my putting is coming around, my short game is coming around, so I've got a lot more hope than I've had maybe in the last couple of years. So I feel I can have a good one this year.

Q. Pretty much on the same subject; Chubby was just saying that he had never seen a player work as hard on their game over the last four nights as you have. I just wondered if there was something that sparked that?

ERNIE ELS: Well, I think for one, I feel like I'm close and I don't want to let it go. You know, as I've just said, I feel mentally fresh this year. When you are like that mentally, you want to have a bit of game with that, a physical game. So that's why I really wanted to get my mechanics right and give myself a really good chance physically, the physical game. Because my mental game, I feel I'm really in a good space right now. So if I can get those two flowing, you know, I think I might have some good stuff happening.

Q. Where does that freshness come from? You've had a lot of stuff off the course you've been involved in with your family and stuff, but is it part of that, maybe getting through some of that? And the second part is, you talk about being close; you've been very close, you've won majors, but how much do you yearn to have that again?

ERNIE ELS: Well, I have a good opportunity now; take the second part first. I feel that the golf courses we are playing this year in majors, I love them. I've done well at Pebble. I've done well at St. Andrews and I did well at Whistling Straits. So I like those courses. I feel if I have my game there, I could have a good chance. I think it's a good opportunity for a lot of players to basically try and strike now. And I don't know, I'm not sure what the reason is why I'm feeling this good. I haven't travelled that much this year, maybe. I didn't get to the Middle East and all of that stuff. That might have helped me a little bit. Being at home here with the kids, going to school here in Jupiter must be a positive, spending a bit more time there. So I felt a bit more grounded. I felt a bit more calm this year than maybe previous years. That's not taking anything away from the Middle East because I love going there, but I feel it's probably been a good change for me just to change my schedule up a little bit, and I like my schedule this year. It's a bit more what I want to do, not what everybody else wants me to do.

I'm just pleased we got it done. The weather is changing a lot. We played the last three holes very fast to get done. But, yeah, I'm in pretty good shape. I'm playing okay. So halfway there, and you know, just got to keep it up.

Q. Talk about how important it was to hold it together through like 3, 4, 5 and 6 with the weather?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it was a little bit of an iffy period in my round there. I missed the green on 3. Got it up and down. Stood on the fourth tee and the wind was blowing out of the south before I played my shot and went total opposite way, came out of the normal and the temperature dropped. A little bit of a change there. Had to, you know, get ready and hit the shot, which I did and made a good par, and you know, I finished okay.

Q. Any positive MoJo from when you won here a few years ago?

ERNIE ELS: That was 2002. Eight-shot lead, I shot lights-out the first three days and I basically just hung in there. Tiger came at me pretty hard, and you know, just hung in there to make a couple of pars on the last.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.

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