Els uneasy as Karlsson walks tall

Ernie Els has little in common with Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova or Cindy Crawford other than the watch he chooses to be paid to wear. Part of the price is attending the Omega European Masters, at least for Crawford, who breezed in for the weekend as patron of the tournament, and Els. The Open champion barely made it to the weekend but, out of contention and in relaxed mood, yesterday breezed round in a 66.

On Friday, however, the erroneously named "Big Easy" had become frustrated on the Crans-sur-Sierre course. How frustrated? "Very." As he has ever been? "Yes, ever." On a scale of one to ten? "Ten out of ten." What do you think of the course being renamed the Seve Ballesteros course? "No comment."

Birdie-fests did not come more enjoyable than at Crans-sur-Sierre until Ballesteros redesigned the greens four years ago. They are now so devilishly maddening that even the likes of Els can be driven to distraction.

"It was a lot more fun in the past," said Barry Lane, who won here in 1993 just a few weeks before appearing in the Ryder Cup. "You knew when you came here that you needed to shoot 22 under to have a chance. Now you need to have a superb iron game and a brilliant short game. You can be 80 yards from the green and if you don't pitch it within four yards you can miss the green. It is very severe."

Just as he did in the third round in '93, Lane, who has not won for eight years, scored a 64 to move three behind Robert Karlsson. The tall Swede began the day with a four-stroke advantage and did nothing wrong but saw Emanuele Canonica close to within two after a 65. For the second day running, Karlsson, who should have won more than his four titles so far on tour, did not drop a shot in his 68 to be 14 under. Karlsson, 33 last Tuesday, scrambled beautifully but not even he could prevent his bunker recovery at the 15th finding sand on the other side of the green. Still, he got up and down from there for a par five.

Canonica is not as tall of stature but at this altitude has been smashing the ball well over 300 yards without the need of his driver. He is playing on an invitation here after losing his card, but was not called up for the long-driving competition yesterday afternoon, a South Africa-Argentina contest featuring Els, Retief Goosen, Eduardo Romero and Ricardo Gonzalez.

"I know I am longer than them but it does not worry me," said the Italian, who is keen to go back for another crack at the US Tour next year. Paul Lawrie, the Wales Open champion, moved dangerously into contention on 11 under alongside Lane and the South African Trevor Immelman.

When Lane won here he was upstaged by Ballesteros, who having wildly sliced his drive played a shot of a lifetime, under the branches of a tree, over a six-foot wall behind which was a swimming pool, over two trees and a bunker. He then chipped in for a birdie to finish second.

It was in honour of his three wins here that Ballesteros had the course named after him, the occasion marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the first tee. Ho, ho, ho, Seve had at last made a cut. He withdrew after the first round with a back injury.

Colin Montgomerie, famously crocked in that department, is expected to announce tomorrow that he will be fit after all to play in the German Masters and the AmEx World Championship ahead of the Ryder Cup. "Montgomerie is a very important member of our team," Ballesteros said. "I hope he feels better and is able to play."