Greg Kraft wants to prove he can win a tournament that counts. Greg Chalmers wants to prove he belongs on the PGA Tour. Both of them could have their hands full in the Doral-Ryder Open against one of the most proven players in the field.

Ernie Els, who decided to play this week only after losing in the first round of the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, cruised to a bogey-free 66 today to get within two strokes of Kraft and give Doral the star quality it is used to on the weekend.

Five hours after Kraft sank an 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 67 that put him at 9-under 135, the winds calmed and Els came charging from the middle of a pack with the kind of play that earned him the nickname "Big Easy."

"I've hit most of the greens in the last two days, so that's kind of nice," Els said. "If I keep hitting it like that, I think I'll be close."

Kraft, who won the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic when it was an unofficial event but hasn't come close to winning in five years, was closer than anyone all day. Four of his six birdie putts were inside 5 feet.

Kraft will be paired Saturday with Chalmers, who also had a bogey-free 66 and was at 137 with Els.

Chalmers, 25, won the Australian Open in December just one month after surviving Q-school to get his PGA Tour card. He admits to getting intimidated playing along with the likes of Tiger Woods, David Duval and Greg Norman.

"You forget that maybe you can play a little bit yourself sometimes,'' he said. "It's hard to get used to seeing those guys around."

Woods and Duval are among six of the top seven players in the world who decided to take off a week after the Match Play, giving Doral it weakest field in years. The best news of all was that Els made an early exit from La Costa and didn't want to take another week off.

"It felt like I missed the cut last week," said Els, who had won the Nissan Open two weeks earlier. "I just felt that I was playing well, and if I take this week off and I had kind of last week off, I might lose out on that bit of magic."

Good news for Doral, bad news for the rest of the players near the lead who haven't cashed a first-place check in years, if at all.

Among those at 138 were Kent Jones, Tommy Armour III and Esteban Toledo, who is willing to give up a chance at his first victory if his wife goes into labour with their second child. Armour's only victory was nine years ago.

Another stroke and another decade behind Armour was Andy Bean, an 11-time winner but not since the Byron Nelson Classic in 1986, in which he earned a career-high $108,000. He can get that much for finishing sixth this week.

"I know what I need to do," said Bean, a three-time champion at Doral. "I need to practice, I need to play and I need to win again."

Els, a two-time U.S. Open champion, has no such memory shortage when it comes to winning. His victory in Los Angeles made him the first player since Jack Nicklaus to win at least once in each of his first six years on the PGA Tour.

Still, he figures he will have his work cut out for him this weekend, even if others around the lead don't carry the same credentials.

"They are good players," Els said. "I don't think anybody should take anything away from them. When they give themselves a chance, they're going to be on the leaderboard, and that's what they are doing.

"In a way, it's almost tougher to go out there and play this week because we're so used to seeing these superstars," he said. "Now, we've got new names. You don't know quite what to expect."

Kraft is one of those new names, although he's no stranger to being in the lead or feeling the pressure from being in contention on the weekend. He won the 1993 Deposit Guaranty with a birdie on the 72nd hole.

That came with a trophy and an asterisk -- at the time, it wasn't an official tour event.

"It didn't matter to me if Tiger Woods, Curtis Strange or David Duval was the guy next on the leaderboard," Kraft said. "I was still trying to win. So even though it wasn't official, I have no complaints and I don't worry about it.

"I can still remember that day like it was yesterday, and the way I felt coming down the stretch."

Woods and Duval won't be there on the weekend, but Kraft will have a two-time U.S. Open champion right behind him.

And this time, it counts.

DIVOTS: Nick Faldo missed the cut again. In his last three events, he has played just 87 holes. ... Greg Norman is planning what is believed to be the first triple green. The White course at Doral is being torn up and replaced by a Norman design that will be called the "Great White Course." It will feature no rough and yellow coquina sand, plus an 18,000-square foot green for Nos. 11, 13 and 17. ... Chip Beck needed a par on his last hole to make the cut. He hit the bunker on the par-3 ninth, blasted out 15 feet by the hole and made the putt. ... Charles Raulerson made the first double eagle of the year on the par-5 first, holing a 6-iron from 202 yards.