Golf

Creativity

Ernie Els
To those of us lucky to have seen them, the shots cemented for all time Els' ability to save par. From a pot bunker on the 13th hole at Muirfield, Els was pinned with no hopes for escape. He blasted to 2 feet and saved par. Then at the final playoff hole, the 18th, the British Open was on the line, but Els' right foot was out of the bunker and he had very little room to swing. Another brilliant play, this time to 5 feet and this time the putt clinched the claret jug. Two examples, but there are hundreds others. The man is a short-game wizard.

Retief Goosen
It's his driving and laser-like iron game that make him so ferocious a competitor. Never has the short game appeared to be his strength, yet let the record show that in 2003, Goosen led the PGA Tour in scrambling. Quietly, of course, which is the way he goes about his business. When he does employ the short game, it's quite often devoid of anything fancy. No high-stakes flop shots for him.

Phil Mickelson
Asked once about Mickelson's vaunted short game, his good friend, Peter Kostis, said that the left-hander had the "chocolate-chip, cookie-dough, jimmies on top" shot that no one else could hit. It's just that he didn't have the basic, up-and-down, high-percentage skill shot, the vanilla one, if you will. Like Tiger? "He's got all 52 flavors," said Kostis.

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Vijay Singh
It's a tribute to his ball-striking abilities, but Singh faces par-saving exploits seemingly fewer times than Els and Woods combined. That's why it's hard to judge his short game and say it's on par with the others; he just doesn't put himself in similar predicaments. He chips the ball fairly well, but he's mastered the little bump shots off the fringe with his fairway wood. He loves to spin his wedges, though it's a tougher shot to control.

Tiger Woods
If Els' short game is great, then how does one rate Woods'? Slightly better, I would argue, though it's hard to quantify just how much so. Woods has perfected the low, ripping, knock-down wedge that hits green, bounces once, then twice, then checks as if it's on a string. He can read greens beautifully, he's always been one of the Tour's best bunker players, and having grown up with a wild swing, he is no stranger to shots out of trees. And no one — absolutely no one — recovers from thick, tough rough better than Woods. Oh, and did you see that birdie chip off the slope on the 16th at Augusta?

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Part 4: Head-to-head