Mercedes is an early test for Ernie Els

The Mercedes Championships provides an interesting start to another PGA Tour season. It's sort of an all-star game to begin 2003, with all of last season's champions on hand to sort out who gets to become a little richer.

In some ways, the Mercedes is like a smaller version of a World Golf Championships event -- elite field, lots of cash on the line. Not that another $1 million means all that much to players who dwell in the Tour's stratosphere. It would be a big deal to first-time winners Spike McRoy or Luke Donald or Chris Smith, among others, but for many of the contestants, the title's the thing.

What better way to start the season than with a victory? A win at Kapalua announces that a player is on his game. The fact that World No. 1 Tiger Woods and No. 2 Phil Mickelson will be absent takes away a tad of the luster this year. Woods is still recuperating from arthroscopic surgery on his knee a few weeks ago, and Mickelson is spending time with his family as he awaits the birth of his third child in April.

That leaves No. 3 Ernie Els as the top-ranked player in the field and the favorite to take the title.

And it is Els who bears close scrutiny this season. After winning his third major last year in the British Open, Els has positioned himself as the latest contender for the title of Tiger's Primary Opponent. Mickelson, by way of his focus on U.S. golf and his incredible potential, is often thought of as a possible Tiger slayer. But until he wins a major, it's Els, not Mickelson, who is the guy to watch.

The South African has arguably the best swing in golf. He's got length, touch and is a great putter. Maybe he could be a little tidier with his greens in regulation statistics, (64.4 percent, 134th on the PGA Tour last season), but there is no denying that Els is one of the game's greats.

If there has been one chink in the Big Easy's armor, it's that he gets down on himself, presses too hard and eliminates himself from contention. The primary example of that might have been at last year's Masters when Els stood on the 13th tee in second place, four shots behind Woods. Els unleashed a terrible drive left of the creek, then when his brain apparently stepped out for a pimento cheese sandwich and a beer at an Augusta snack stand, he followed with an even worse second shot that found the water. His approach also got wet. The result was an 8 on the par-5 and Els was toast. He went on to finish tied for fifth.

That finish, Els has said, was his most disappointing of the year.

Seeing the need to change his thinking, Els has started seeing a sports psychologist. Something must be working.

In all last season, the 33-year-old won once on the U.S. Tour and three times on the European Tour in addition to his playoff victory in the British at Muirfield.

Almost lost in the flurry of season-ending events was the fact that Els was absolutely brilliant in winning the World Match Play title in England (he was 12-under through 18 holes in dispatching Colin Montgomerie) and then shot a 63 in the final round to win the $2 million first prize in the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in South Africa.

When Sergio Garcia won the Mercedes Championships last year, he said his goal was to win money titles in the U.S. and Europe in the same year. Els came much closer to doing that, finishing fifth in the U.S. and third in Europe. Garcia was 12th in the U.S., sixth in Europe.

Els could have won the Order of Merit, but chose to end his European season early to spend time with his family.

Now a new season is upon us, and we wait to see if Els is moving to new heights. The Mercedes Championships could give us an indication of the state of his game for 2003.

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