Els turns eyes to green-jacket prize

Ernie Els didn't earn any extra style points but he did hold on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational by two shots over Kevin Na and Edoardo Molinari yesterday in Orlando, Fla.

Bolstered by one-putting three of his final four holes from 7 (No. 15), 6 1/2 (16) and 8 (18) feet, he parred his way in at Bay Hill while overcoming three missed greens.

After posting a double bogey-bogey finish on Nos. 13 and 14 on Sunday before play was halted by a line of thunderstorms, Els said he might not get much sleep worrying about how he would maintain his two-shot lead over Na when play resumed Monday. Turns out it, he had reason to be nervous.

“The last 20 hours I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was going to finish this thing,” said Els, who carded a disjointed 71 for an 11-under 277 total and his second victory in as many starts.

In winning for the 18th time on the PGA Tour, Els became the only player this year to win twice on the circuit, his other win coming two weeks ago in the CA Championship at Doral. Doing so just two weeks from the year's first major championship will put him atop a short list of favorites at Augusta National. But it should be noted that Els has done nothing in the Masters since his heartbreaking loss to Phil Mickelson by a stroke in 2004, having missed three straight cuts.

Interestingly, the last three players to win the Masters -- Zach Johnson in 2007, Trevor Immelman in 2008 and Angel Cabrera in 2009 -- came into the event more or less under the radar. Els won't be able to pull that off but he will be able to compete while most of the attention will be on Tiger Woods' return to the PGA Tour.

Woods is the last player to win twice in Florida, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship in 2001, before going on to win the Masters. Els, a three-time majors champion, would like to pull off a similar feat and earn his first green jacket.

While wearing the blue blazer given to the winner at Bay Hill yesterday, the Big Easy joked about wanting to turn it green.

"I know the history of Augusta pretty well, and there's been a lot of nice stories," Els said. "There's been some cruel ones, thinking of (Tom) Weiskopf and (Greg) Norman and myself. But there's also been some really great ones. We are still hoping for the great one."

Quick divots: The last time Mickelson went this deep into a season without a title was 2006, when he ended his dry spell with a Georgia double -- back-to-back victories at the BellSouth Classic and Masters. ... Ostrander native Ben Curtis, one shot back to start the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, seemed to run out of steam on Sunday and Monday, closing with a 74. He finished sixth, four shots back of Els, and collected $216,000 for his efforts. ... Fred Couples won his third straight start on the Champions Tour, shooting a course-record 10-under 62 Sunday at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Punta Espada for a two-stroke victory over Corey Pavin in the Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic. Couples, 50, is the first player in Champions Tour history to win three of his first four tournaments, and the eighth to win three straight starts, leaving him one behind the tour record set by Chi Chi Rodriguez in 1987.

Information from ESPN, Golf Channel.com, Golf.com and the Associated Press contributed to this post.