Ernie Els

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Ernie Els

Personal Information
Birth: October 17, 1969,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Height: 6' 3"
Nationality: Flag of South Africa South Africa
Residence: Wentworth, England
Career
College: n/a
Turned Professional: 1989
Current Tour: European Tour (joined 1992); PGA Tour (joined 1994)
Professional wins: 61 (PGA Tour 15; European Tour 20 (including 2 co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour); others 28)
Majors: U.S. Open 1994, 1997
The Open Championship 2002
Awards: European Tour Order of Merit winner 2003, 2004
European Tour Golfer of the Year 1994, 2002, 2003
PGA Tour Rookie of the Year 1994
Sunshine Tour Order of Merit winner 1991/92, 1994/95

Theodore Ernest "Ernie" Els (born October 17, 1969) is a South African golfer who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. He is known as "The Big Easy," for his imposing physical stature (he stands 6 feet 3 inches) along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Els was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up in South Africa, he played rugby, cricket, tennis, and, starting at age 8, golf. He was a skilled junior tennis player and won the Eastern Transvaal Junior Championships at age 13. But by age 14, and playing off a scratch handicap, he decided to focus exclusively on golf.

Els first achieved prominence in 1984, when he won the Junior World Golf Championship in the Boys 13-14 category. Phil Mickelson was second to Ernie that year. (The Boys 9-10 category was won by Tiger Woods.)

[edit] Professional career

Els turned professional at the end of 1989, and won his first professional tournament in 1991 on the Southern Africa Tour (today the Sunshine Tour).

Among his numerous victories since are three major championships: Els won the US Open in 1994 at the Oakmont Country Club and 1997 (this time at the Congressional Country Club), and the British Open in 2002.

Ernie Els shares a laugh during the practice round for the 2004 Buick Classic
Enlarge
Ernie Els shares a laugh during the practice round for the 2004 Buick Classic

Other highlights in Ernie's career include topping the 2003 and 2004 European Tour Order of Merit (money list), and winning the World Match Play Championship a record six times. He has held the number one spot in the Official World Golf Rankings and is consistently ranked in the top five. He has been in the top ten for a total of 646 weeks. Nobody has been in the top ten longer. In 2003 he was voted 37th on the SABC3's Great South Africans. He won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in the 1991/92 and 1994/95 seasons.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Els is known for his willingness to participate in tournaments all around the world (he regularly plays in European Tour-sanctioned events in Asia, Australasia, and his native country of South Africa). He says that his globe-trotting schedule is in recognition of the global nature of golf, but it has caused some friction with the U.S. PGA TOUR, an organization that would prefer Els to play more tournaments in the United States. In late 2004, Tim Finchem, the director of the PGA Tour, wrote quite a firm letter to Ernie asking him to do so, but Els publicized and rejected this request. The PGA Tour's attitude caused considerable offense in the golfing world outside of North America. Els missed several months of the 2005 season due to injury, but won the second event on his return, the Dunhill Championship.

Els has not missed a cut on the PGA Tour since the 2004 Bay Hill Invitational and has not missed a cut on the European Tour since the 2000 Johnnie Walker Classic. He is currently leading the statistic of most consecutive cuts on both circuits.

When not playing, Els has a golf course design business, a charitable foundation which supports golf among underprivileged youngsters in South Africa, and a highly-regarded wine-making business.

[edit] Major Championships

[edit] Wins (3)

Year Championship 54 Holes Winning Score Margin of Victory Runners Up
1994 U.S. Open 2 shot lead -5 (69-71-66-73=279) Playoff England Colin Montgomerie, United States Loren Roberts
1997 U.S. Open (2) 2 shot deficit -4 (71-67-69-69)=276) 1 stroke England Colin Montgomerie
2002 The Open Championship 2 shot lead -6 (70-66-72-70=278) Playoff Australia Stuart Appleby, France Thomas Levet, Australia Steve Elkington

[edit] Results timeline

Tournament 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP T8 CUT T12 T17 T16 T27
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP T7 1 CUT T5 1 T49 CUT
The Open Championship CUT DNP DNP T5 T6 T24 T11 T2 T10 T29 T24
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP CUT CUT T25 T3 T61 T53 T21 CUT
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
The Masters 2 T6 T5 T6 2 47 T27
U.S. Open T2 T66 T24 T5 T9 T15 T26
The Open Championship T2 T3 1 T18 2 T34 3
PGA Championship T34 T13 T34 T5 T4 DNP T16

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] PGA Tour career summary

Year Majors Other wins PGA Tour wins Earnings ($) Rank
1994 1 - 1 684,440 19
1995 - 1 1 842,590 14
1996 - 1 1 904,944 14
1997 1 1 2 1,243,008 9
1998 - 1 1 763,783 36
1999 - 1 1 1,710,756 15
2000 - 1 1 3,469,405 3
2001 - - - 2,336,456 15
2002 1 1 2 3,291,895 5
2003 - 2 2 3,371,257 9
2004 - 3 3 5,787,225 2
2005* - 4 - 1,627,184 47
2006 - - - 2,326,220 28
Career** 3 12 15 28,420,395 6

* Didn't play after July due to injury. ** Complete through end of 2006 season

These figures are from the PGA Tour's official site. As Els divides his time roughly equally between the PGA Tour and the European Tour, his ranking on the PGA Tour money list understates his standing within the global game. From the mid 1990s through 2005, he has rarely been out of the top five in the Official World Golf Rankings.

[edit] PGA Tour wins (15)

Major championships are shown in bold.

[edit] European Tour wins (20)

There is a summary of Els's European Tour career here.

Els's victory in The Open counts as a win on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. His two U.S. Opens do not count as European Tour wins because the three U.S. based majors did not become part of the European Tour's official schedule until 1998.

[edit] Other wins (28)

Most of the wins up to 1992 were Sunshine Tour events. Most of those from 1994 onwards are in unofficial events.

[edit] Teams

Alfred Dunhill Cup
1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 (winners), 1998 (winners), 1999, 2000

World Cup
1992, 1993, 1996 (Individual and team winners), 1997, 2001 (winners)

Presidents Cup
1996, 1998 (Winners), 2000, 2003 (Draw)

[edit] Els-designed golf courses

  • Mission Hills Golf Club (The Savannah Course) - Shenzhen, China
  • Whiskey Creek - Ijamsville, Maryland, USA
  • Oubaai - Garden Route, South Africa

He is also responsible for the refinement and modernisation of the West Course, Wentworth-Virginia Water, England- which took place in 2006.

Courses under construction include:

[edit] Foundation

The Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation was established in 1999. It has the objective of identifying youths which show talent and potential in the game of golf from under-priviliged backgrounds. It provides educational assistance amongst other moral and financial help in order for these youths to reach their full potential.

The first Friendship Cup was played in 2006 which is a matchplay competition, played in a Ryder Cup type format. In the cup, Ernie's foundation plays against the foundation of Tiger Woods. Ernie's foundation won 12.5 points to 3.5 points.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Official World Golf Rankings | World No. 1's in Men's Golf
Severiano Ballesteros | Fred Couples | David Duval | Ernie Els | Nick Faldo | Bernhard Langer | Tom Lehman | Greg Norman | Nick Price | Vijay Singh | Tiger Woods | Ian Woosnam
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