Colin Montgomerie, the hero of Valderrama, complained of being physically wrecked after losing to Brad Faxon in the quarter-finals of the Toyota World Matchplay Championship here on the West Course yesterday. Another seed, Steve Elkington, also lost while the holder, Ernie Els, strode majestically on.
The big Scot, who is already very wealthy, blamed the toll being taken by relentless pursuit of the considerable financial rewards on offer in the modern game. "This is my ninth tournament in a row and in glorious hindsight, it is far too much," he said.
"But it's not just the tournaments," he went on. "It's the company days in between. I haven't had an hour to myself for the past 10 weeks. Yet I can't look on this as a blessing in disguise. My mind is always keen to keep going but unfortunately my body is saying no, today."
As he trudged off the course, beaten 2 and 1 by Faxon, Montgomerie said: "I have the `flu right now and I don't know if I could have played tomorrow, had I won. The last couple of weeks have run me into the ground."
Then, identifying the pursuit of a record fifth successive Order of Merit title as the main source of his problems, he said: "That particular challenge is killing me, but I feel I have to go for it. I may never get another chance of five-in-a-row. Then there was the strain of the Ryder Cup."
The upshot is that Montgomerie may decide not to compete for Scotland in the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews next week. In the meantime, he remains tightlipped about whether he will abandon Europe and compete full-time on the US Tour next year.
An official announcement on the matter will be made next month, but Faxon indicated after their match that he already knew what Montgomerie was going to do. Either way, the player said his decision would not be affected by the news that his wife Eimear, is expecting their third child next May. "That was planned," he said with a smile.
It seemed odd in a way that a beaten player should have been commanding such attention. But a semi-final meeting today between Faxon and Vijay Singh is unlikely to send pulses racing, while the progress of Els and Nick Price, who meet in the other semi-final, was fairly predictable.
In defeating Ian Woosnam by 7 and 6, Els recorded his second biggest winning margin in 10 successive matches here. The biggest was a 10 and 8 thrashing of Mark Brooks in last year's semi-finals.
The key to his success over the erratic Welshman was an outward journey of 32 in the morning, which left him four up. And when winds freshened as the day wore on, Woosnam had no chance of seriously closing the gap while spraying his drives in all directions.
"Swinging the club has become guesswork - and you can't play golf that way," he said dejectedly. "I physically don't know how to draw the ball anymore. It used to be my natural shot but it's gone. My plan now is to go home and somehow try to find it again."
Els, on the other hand, betrayed few signs of rustiness after a five-week break in South Africa. And his long, lazy swing never came under any pressure after he finished the morning with three successive birdies for an approximate round of 67 and a lead of four up at lunchtime.
Curiously, Woosnam didn't seem too impressed and suggested that Els would do well to get in some practice yesterday afternoon, if he was to hold out hope of further progress. Responding to this implied criticism, he said: "You play as good as you have to in matchplay. Looking at my winning margin, it was obviously good enough."
Price, whose best performance in seven challenges here has been as losing finalist to Seve Ballesteros in 1991, repeatedly punished Frank Nobilo with a series of delightfully crisp iron shots. Such play was certain to yield a rich dividend in difficult conditions in which the 471-yard first hole changed from a drive two iron in the morning, to a three-wood second shot after lunch.
"Ernie's going to be tough," said the Zimbabwean afterwards. "He beat me in the Andersen Consulting earlier this year when it seemed that whatever I did, he was capable of doing that bit better. As a long driver of the ball, this course suits him perfectly. but I'm heartened by the number of birdies I'm making."
In fact for the 31 holes he needed in disposing of Nobilo by 6 and 5, Price had 10 birdies and an eagle - the best haul of the day.
The crucial stretch in Faxon's win was from the 25th to the 31st holes, during which Montgomerie went from two up to two down. At the 25th, Faxon sank a 25-foot putt for a half in par; he went on to sink a 35-footer for another half in par at the 27th and he closed the gap to one hole with a winning par at the short 28th, where Montgomerie missed the green.
Faxon squared at the next, where he sank a 12 footer; he sank a five-footer for a winning birdie at the 30th to go one up and stretched his lead at the next, with a conceded birdie after Montgomerie had uncharacteristically driven into trees.
Then, on the homeward stretch, the Scot, by his own admission, was forced to accept an inescapable truth of matchplay golf - "it's always dangerous playing against people who can putt." And whatever about his indifferent touch with the blade against Darren Clarke on Thursday, Faxon missed nothing of any consequence yesterday.
When asked whether Montgomerie should make his playing future in the US, the American replied: "The best players all seem to want to go where the best players are." Which, one could be tempted to suggest, is where the Ryder Cup resides.
Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal, still the favourites, moved up five places to joint 13th but were completely overshadowed by little known French pair, Jeff Remesy and Rapahael Jacquelin, in the second round of the Novotel Perrier Pairs tournament in Bordeaux yesterday.
Remsey and Jacquelin were the only pair to break 70 with a two-under par 69 in the foursomes round yesterday and, with their four-ball round of 64 on Thursday, lead by two shots with a nine-under-par aggregate of 133.
