Woods' victory inflicts psychological scars on Els

After their first proper encounter of the year the two best players in the world were each left somewhat battered at the end of the Bay Hill Invitational. Tiger Woods, of course, at least had the satisfaction of achieving exactly what he set out to do.

In winning the title for the fourth successive year Woods also shattered the incredible run of form shown by Ernie Els. While Tiger was recuperating from his knee surgery, Els won four times and finished runner-up on two more occasions.

When the pair came together in the final group on Saturday at Bay Hill it seemed a natural progression and, perhaps, the first of many meetings this season. How much Els's wrist injury affected the outcome or whether the psychological scar tissue will prove significant will only be seen in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately for the South African he does not have much time to sort himself out. The Players Championship, the biggest tournament outside the majors, begins on Thursday at Sawgrass and the Masters is only three weeks away.

With Els slumping to a 77 on Sunday, he finished 19 strokes behind Woods. Either he will have used his mental coach, Jos Vantisphout, as a replacement punchbag – his wrist injury was caused by using one in his garage at Wentworth – or he will have listened to a verbal butt-kicking from the Belgian psychologist. Probably both.

Part of the reason for the Open champion's fine form since his victory at Muir- field last July was his concentration on his own game and forgetting about the world No 1. There were those, however, who attributed Els's record scoring at the start of the year to the fact that he did not have to worry about Woods.

Those critics will have gained more ammunition from this last weekend. Woods, on the other hand, does not concern himself with anyone until the back nine on Sunday and at that point he led by nine strokes.

The eventual winning margin was 11 and he did not drop a stroke in his last 44 holes despite the torrential rain on Sunday.

"That I was able to do that says a lot," Woods said. "I feel my game is progressing. In terms of my ball-striking I feel I am getting back to how I felt in 2000. But my [course] management skills may be better just because of experience."

Three victories in four tournaments this season is all the proof that is needed to confirm what Woods says about being about to do exactly what he wants with his swing. "I don't have to alter my swing because of the knee," he explained.

The pain he played in on Sunday was a different kind. Woods went down with food poisoning on Saturday night. He hardly slept as he continually rushed to the bathroom. He was sick on the course and said his stomach muscles hurt after each time he swung the driver.

He had thought about going to the hospital, but said: "It's easy to check yourself in but it is harder to get checked out. I needed to get rehydrated but it was lucky it wasn't hot and humid."

At least Woods could rush home to his own bathroom immediately after the round. "I'm going to take the next couple of days off and not do a lot. Just get healthy," he said. He will probably only have one practice round at Sawgrass on Wednesday.

"I know the course, I know how to play it," added the 2001 Players champion. "It is just a case of getting a feel for the pace of the greens."