IF NIKI LAUDA had been playing Wentworth's West Course yesterday afternoon, he would have pulled into the clubhouse, after half a dozen holes, parked his clubs, and gone home to a hot bath. But golfers are made of sterner stuff. Ernie Els and Vijay Singh kept going to the end of their contest for the World Matchplay Championship, which came on the day's 34th hole, earning cheers for their efforts in dismal conditions and a sigh of relief as they reached a conclusion.

Given the setting and the season, the World Matchplay has the potential to be one of the loveliest events of the sporting year. Amidst the turning foliage and the carefully tended homes of retired entertainers, Wentworth's annual jamboree is to autumn what the US Masters at Augusta National is to the spring. Not this year. The gloom and the drenching rain of yesterday afternoon effectively dampened the sense of occasion.

Ernie Els didn't mind. Taking the event for the third time in a row, he would probably have played through a blizzard for the chance to make his unique hat trick. And it is hard to imagine even the worst of conditions having much of an unsettling effect on his smooth, rhythmical game.

Vijay Singh, too, is not the excitable type on the course, and the meeting of these two fine but unshowy players was hardly one to appeal to the instincts of the whoopers and hollerers.

But it was a good day for those who can bear to watch sport without the presence of overbearing "characters" among the contestants. Singh and Els smiled at each other, occasionally exchanged compliments and observations, and got on with the job.