Ernie Els desperately needs to finish Honda Classic rally to save his psyche

Ernie Els needs to do to Matt Jones today what Tiger Woods did to him in Dubai.

Els must pull off the unthinkable, leapfrog the seven golfers that stood in front of him at the start of the day and win the Honda Classic. Early in his round, Els is making a nice run at it too. The man nicknamed Easy who only seems to make everything hard on himself is three under through five holes, zooming only one shot back of Jones and Mark Calcavecchia.

Now Els has to finish.

Second place isn’t good enough. Not for Els. Not after the way he absolutely imploded under Tiger’s charge in the rich oilmen’s desert. Not after the way he followed that up by getting blitzed by the 61st seed in the first round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Classic.

Els wins and his psyche has a chance at being restored. He comes close or fades back and you won’t hear from him much again in 08.

At least it gives golf fans a reason to watch the final round of the Honda Classic, one of the best non-Tiger events on the Tour in my opinion. The Honda’s played on a golf course that’s great fun for regular hackers to play, but tough on the pros near the greens - the extremely underrated PGA National Champion Course.