Golf Heineken Classic: Ernie Els slumped to a 66 yesterday. After a sensational 60 on the opening day the South African found life a little harder in the second round and could manage only a six-under-par score to finish 18 under for the first 36 holes of the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne.

In doing so, Els broke the previous European Tour record for the opening two rounds of a tournament - achieved by John Daly in 2001 - by one stroke.

Gary Murphy was the only one of the three Irish players at the tournament to make the cut. A 70 yesterday - one shot better than his first-round score - was enough to comfortably make it into the third round.

Graham McDowell and Peter Lawrie's second-round scores of 75 and 73 respectively, however, left both players three shots outside the half way cut.

Els leads by seven shots from Richard Green, by eight from Adam Scott and Peter Fowler and was surprised to be greeted by a barrage of disdainful questions when he reached the press tent afterwards.

"What went wrong today, Ernie?" was the first, followed before he could recover by: "Don't you feel ashamed of yourself? That was a pretty lacklustre 66."

Els, off guard, looked at his interrogators and said: "Are those official questions," before noting the smiles on the faces of the reporters and adding: "or are you taking the piss?" It was the latter, of course.

To hold up the hands, to shrug and just smile is the only possible reaction when a master like Els reduces a great test of golf such as Royal Melbourne to an average of nine under par over two rounds.

It is a level of scoring simply unheard of on this classic course. But it needed one of the best players of all time at the peak of his form to do it and yesterday Els admitted that his first round had perhaps been the best of his career so far.

"I'm not much of a man for records and memorabilia," he said, "but that was a dream round. I may just ask for a copy of that card, frame it and hang it in the bar back home."

Scott, a 23-year-old who has all the natural instincts of the true sportsman, played the first two rounds with Els and paid him a tremendous tribute.

"In that first round," he said, "I realised by about the 12th green that he had a pretty good shot at a 59. Then, after the 14th, I was convinced he would do that or even lower.

"In fact, I was hoping he would do it. It was probably the best round of golf I've ever seen."

Els was still hitting the ball immense distances - he is averaging 326 yards off the tee this week - but some of the pins were a little more difficult to get at.

The South African admitted that he was not hitting the ball quite as close as he had on Thursday and it showed in his putting stats: 25 in a first-round 60; 32 in his 66.

Incredibly he found 35 of 36 greens in regulation, a statistic he will not often, if ever, better in his career. "So far this week," said Els, explaining how he does it, "I've been hitting the ball well and putting quite nicely and keeping everything tidy."

So that's the secret of success.

Guardian Service