Woods, Els duel to another draw in the dark

31 Mar, 2005

Tiger Woods and Ernie Els once again duelled to a golfing playoff draw here on Tuesday as darkness halted the Tavistock Cup match between cross-town rival golf clubs Lake Nona and host Isleworth. The annual showdown was declared an 8 1/2-8 1/2 draw, bringing back memories of 16 months earlier at the 2003 Presidents Cup in South Africa, where Els and Woods halved three sudden-death holes before the match was declared a draw.
A foursome of two-time US Open winners from rival clubs - South Africans Els and Retief Goosen for Lake Nona and Americans Woods and Lee Janzen for Isleworth - fought through three playoff holes before sunset halted the event.
"It's a lot of fun starting out, then it gets real quiet at the end," Woods said.
Woods led an Isleworth rally on the back nine to level the matches and force the playoff, every hole of which was contested at the 18th hole.
Els sank a clutch 10-footer to extend the match to a second playoff hole. Goosen dropped a 25-foot birdie but Woods matched it from 15 feet to force a third playoff hole. Goosen and Els missed birdie putts on their third try and darkness forced a draw declaration upon the 1.78 million-dollar event.
"Seems like we're making this a habit, finishing in the dark and in a tie?" Els said to Woods.
Prize money was split among each team with Woods collecting a 100,000-dollar bonus for shooting the low score in the stroke-play format. Teams played in foursomes with each man facing both rivals in stroke-play.

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