TEEING OFF

What to look for on the professional golf scene:

1. Marana, Ariz. -- He’s winless since 2004 on the PGA Tour and at 38, it’s possible that Ernie Els’ best days have already come and gone. But that’s not the way Els sees it.

He’s confident that a renewed commitment to playing more often -- a rigorous schedule leading up to the Masters -- is going to turn things around in a hurry.

“I’ve been doing a bit of work on my game, so it feels all right,” he said. “I’m striking it quite nicely.”

But that’s not how Els started the season. At the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, Els needed only to bogey the last hole to win, but he made triple bogey and tied for second.

Then at Dubai, needing to birdie the last hole to catch Tiger Woods, he hit his second shot into the water and tied for third.

He lost to Jonathan Byrd, 6 and 5, in the first round of the match play Wednesday -- his fifth first-round loss and fourth in a row.

Unless Els changes his mind, he will play four tournaments in Florida, then at Houston before the Masters.

Last year, Els missed the cut at Augusta for the first time since 1995.

“I feel that I almost overwork myself a little bit too much on the range before Augusta and I don’t want to do that this year,” he said. “I want to feel like I’m just playing into the tournament and enjoying the tournament where it is. That’s why I put Houston in.”

2. It was a jolly Colin Montgomerie who finished off Jim Furyk in the first round and then confirmed he had set a date to marry Gaynor Steele, April 19 at Loch Lomond, Scotland.

Montgomery, 44, is also interested in getting into the Masters, which is going to be difficult unless he improves on his ranking of 60th.

“I’m in a lowly 60th place right now and I’m not very happy about it,” he said.

“I’ve got four tournaments through Doral to get back into the top 50 to try to get in the Masters. I don’t want to miss out.”

Next week, Montgomerie plays the Johnnie Walker Classic in India and then the Ballentine’s Championship in South Korea.

“I’ve got to fly from Korea to Doral . . . that’s a good one. If I get there in time, I’ll play Thursday morning.”

Montgomerie gave his fiancee a six-carat engagement ring. Steele is a widow who inherited a reported 20 million pounds.

3. How big is the Masters? It’s the most prestigious sports event in the U.S., according to a survey of nearly 800 senior sports industry executives and published in Sports Business Journal.

The Masters received 41.8% of the vote, the Super Bowl was second with 34.8%, the World Series was third with 6.1% and the Final Four was fourth with 4.9%.

4. Sergio Garcia used two putters in his 3-and-2 first-round victory over John Senden, a belly putter and a conventional putter. Garcia took his three-iron out of his bag. Garcia’s philosophy on the greens: “I just try to hit it with the putter and in the hole.”

5. His tee time was 8:08 a.m. Wednesday, so Padraig Harrington set his alarm clock for 4:50 a.m.

“It takes 40 minutes of gym work and 20 minutes to wash up. That’s an hour. That’s 10 to six. It took 40 minutes to get here. That’s 6:30. Fifteen minutes for breakfast, 20 minutes more for physio, three minutes to get out to the tee, an hour to warm up . . . it’s normally 2 1/2 hours plus travel. So 3 hours 10 minutes and I gave myself an extra eight minutes today just because it takes a few minutes to get around the place here.”

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TODAY’S PAIRINGS

Round two of Accenture Match Play Championship (seeding in parentheses):

JONES BRACKET

Tiger Woods (1) vs. Arron Oberholser (33)

David Toms (49) vs. Aaron Baddeley (17)

Bradley Dredge (57) vs. Paul Casey (25)

K.J. Choi (9) vs. Ian Poulter (24)

HOGAN BRACKET

Jonathan Byrd (61) vs. Andres Romero (36)

Henrik Stenson (13) vs.Trevor Immelman (20)

Adam Scott (5) vs. Woody Austin (37)

Sergio Garcia (12) vs. Boo Weekley (44)

SNEAD BRACKET

Steve Stricker (3) vs. Hunter Mahan (35)

Angel Cabrera (14) vs. Luke Donald (19)

Colin Montgomerie (59) vs. Charles Howell III (38)

Padraig Harrington (11) vs. Stewart Cink (22)

PLAYER BRACKET

Phil Mickelson (2) vs. Stuart Appleby (31)

Justin Leonard (50) vs Lee Westwood (18)

Rod Pampling (58) vs. Nick O’Hern (39)

Vijay Singh (10) vs. Niclas Fasth (23)

From the Associated Press

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STAT OF THE WEEK

Stuart Appleby, above, is the only player to compete in all World Golf Championships since they began in 1999. The Accenture Match Play Championship is Appleby’s 27th consecutive WGC event.

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A SLICE OF LIFE

Ernie Els, on Tiger Woods:

‘I’ve seen Jack Nicklaus play on television, I’ve seen Nick Faldo. . . all these guys No. 1 for long stretches, even Greg Norman . . . but I’ve never seen anything like Tiger. He’s a step above.’