You’re probably thinking that Ernie Els failing to win a tournament this year is no big deal.  And normally you’d be right.  But this is the first time since 1990 that the big South African has failed to win a tourney in a calendar year.  That’s a remarkable stretch of 19 years, which, unfortunately, has come to an end.  The Alfred Dunhill Championship was Els last opportunity to win this year, and he had a pretty good shot heading into the final round.  Els started the final round two strokes back of eventual winner Pablo Martin.  But a horrendous 5-over …read more

In the end, the final day turned into a showdown between two of the best golfers in the world.  Only it was Ernie Els, not Tiger Woods, battling Phil Mickelson for the HSBC Champions.  Right from the get-go Tiger seemed off his game, and his score of 72 was proof of that.  On the front nine Mickelson pulled away from his old foe, pulling ahead of Woods by six strokes, and finishing with a 3-under 69 on the day, good for 17-under and the win.
But after vanquishing Woods, “Lefty” had another challenger to contend with–South African Ernie Els.  After an …read more

On paper it looked like the American team would run away with this year’s Presidents Cup.  Fortunately for the International team, golf isn’t played on paper.  For the second straight day, the pesky International squad kept pace with the Yanks, this time in the fourballs matches, and after two days at the Presidents Cup, find themselves trailing the Americans by one point, 6 1/2 to 5 1/2.  Today it was two late rallies, one by the team of Ernie Els and Mike Weir, the other by Tim Clark and Vijay Singh, that kept Fred Couples’ American team from running away …read more

Being the world’s No.1 player has its advantages.  Apparently one of those advantages is being able to call out your opponents publicly.  Which is precisely what Tiger Woods did at a press conference yesterday, on the eve of the Deutsche Bank Championship.  The target of his criticism?  Ernie Els, the sweet swinging South African and three-time major winner.
In 2005. Els had major surgery on his left knee, and since then has seen his ranking drop from the top five to No. 20, while only claiming three tour victories since the surgery, the last one in March 2008.  Woods, on the …read more

The ending of The Barclays, the first of the FedEx Cup playoff events, literally came right down to the wire.  It was setting up to be a 5-way playoff between Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods and Heath Slocum, that is until Slocum’s final shot of the day, a 20-foot par putt that fell true, giving the 35-year-old the improbable victory.  With the win Slocum pockets a handsome $1.35 million winner’s check, and also assures him of a spot in the Tour Championship, and a chance at the $10 million dollar bonus.
Tiger Woods had a chance at to …read more