The two-week vacation Ernie Els recently took was precisely what he needed.

Forget his early-season momentum, when he won four of the seven worldwide tournaments he started. All that, Els said Tuesday, is in the past.

When he tees off Thursday at 1:18 p.m., he'll be refreshed in mind and spirit. Oh, and his wrist will be just fine, too.

"A nice break always helps your mental attitude," said Els, who injured his wrist three weeks ago while working out with a punching bag. "I might have gotten a little tired mentally. When I come to play, I want to feel like I'm 100 percent. I don't want to just make the cut; I want to contend."

Rather than play through the pain and take a chance of further injuring himself, Els skipped The Players Championship and last week's BellSouth Classic after a 38th-place finish at the Bay Hill Invitational in late March.

His wrist was a little tender then. Not anymore.

"It's 100 percent now," Els said. "By Thursday, I'll be ready to play. I feel like I'm coming back to where I was."

A scary thought for his competitors.

Before his disappointment at Bay Hill, Els was the hottest golfer in the world, becoming the sixth player to win the PGA Tour's first two events - the Mercedes Championship and the Sony Open. He added victories at the Heineken Classic and the Johnnie Walker Classic on the European Tour.

He won a lot of money and some newfound respect from pundits looking for someone to challenge Tiger Woods.

"For a while, I went at it the wrong way," Els said. "I went to play majors against Tiger, and let's face it, Tiger is going to be there. So, if you start playing Tiger on Thursday from the first tee, I think you're going to beat yourself up and not play your normal game."

He's trying to correct that. Winning last year's British Open was a good start, and this season's early dominance continued his strong run.

But every once in a while, he admits, it's impossible not to slip back into old habits.

The par-5 13th hole during last year's Masters immediately jumps to mind.

In second place Sunday, four shots behind Woods, Els approached No. 13 and immediately took himself out of contention, hitting a tree, finding the water and tallying a triple bogey.

"Last year, I was just trying to chase," Els said. "I think I made a bogey on 10 or 11, and I was trying to get going again because I played such a good front nine. But after the tee shot, I was dead. And then I just made mistake after mistake after that. After the first mistake, I was trying to rectify it as quickly as I could, and subsequently, I just got myself in a deeper hole."

But Els is confident he won't suffer a Tiger-induced mental lapse this year. And he won't lend a shovel to anybody.

"We work on things all the time, and when you get to the moment, you've really got to be headstrong," Els said. "I've got to be more disciplined and play the percentages. And if you make (eight) on 13, it's still not the end of the world. Let's hope I'm disciplined enough to make the right choices."