| South Africa’s Ernie Els produced a sparkling 67 in the second round of the NGC on Friday, his lowest at the tournament since 2002, thanks to confidence in his knee and a dot on his putter.
Els moved to five-under for the tournament, still five shots behind leader Jim Furyk; a deficit that he could well make-up on the weekend.
In 2002 Els shot 63 in the final round on the way to victory, but since then he has shot 72, 75, 74, 69, 70, 74, 72, 71, 72, 70, 73, 75, and 72.
“I feel like I’m swinging nicely and I’m hitting the ball solidly,” Els said. He also admitted to favouring the knee he injured in a sailing accident in 2005 and that he was readjusting his swing to compensate for it.
“I think if the accident had happened with my right knee and got all screwed up, it would have been a little different,” Els said. “Because it was the left knee there is a lot of torque on the left leg. Going back and coming through the ball there is a lot of weight transfer to the left and I’m not the lightest guy in the world.
“When all the weight gets onto the left knee the body does not want to feel pain and you straighten the leg, and that’s not the way to hit a golf ball.
“You need to move your legs laterally towards the target, but I was stopping on the way down and subsequently I spun out of the shot. My left hip was up and I’d have to rely on my rhythm and timing.
“Now that my knee is better I can work on getting a better leg action too.”
But Els was also employing a new trick with his putter.
“It’s a centre shaft putter with a red dot on the shaft,” he said. “If my hands are too far forward I’ll see the dot and if they’re too far back I’ll see it as well. If I don’t see it I know I’m in the right position.
“I’ve got to read the greens correctly and line the ball up properly, but with the right hand position if you hit it on line it should be good.”
Els went out in 32 strokes, which included birdies at the second, third, seventh and ninth. But just as things were looking good, Els made a bogey on the par-five tenth. He bounced back with a birdie on the 11th but strangely bogeyed the par-five 14th.
It seemed to spur him on and he responded with back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th to come home in 35. | 
