It is possible to fluke a win in a major championship. Andy North even managed to win two United States Opens without being admitted to the pantheon of great players. But Ernie Els, another two-time US Open winner, doesn’t have to worry about posterity anymore.
Long ago Els’s earnings became an irrelevance; after his second US Open win in 1997 he was not playing for money, he was playing for respect. At Muirfield in June Els won the most important major of the lot, the Open Championship. With that title came two things, the respect of his peers and the self-belief that can move mountains.
To put Els’s achievement into perspective, his major collection now exceeds such luminaries as Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, Johnny Miller, Payne Stewart, Tony Jacklin and Jose-Maria Olazabal. Among currently active players, Nick Price, Larry Nelson and Hale Irwin also have three, but the latter two are campaigning on the senior tour.
In the list of those with four or more majors there are, to put it mildly, no mugs.
The great Scottish trio of Old and Young Tom Morris and Willie Park (senior) each won four Opens, as did Bobby Locke, the only South African who now stands between Els and Gary Player as this country’s finest ever player.
This year Els won six times around the world and his bunker shot at the 13th hole on the final day of the Open won the European Tour shot of the year award.
With a stance resembling a giraffe at a water hole, Els conjured the ball to tap in distance for par. He did the same in the playoff against Thomas Levet proving, for any who chose to doubt that he is the finest bunker player in the world.
In early December Els won the Nedbank Golf Challenge for the third time, pocketing $2-million and decimating a powerful field to win by eight shots. His year was summed up by his final round; with a four-shot lead removing the need for excess, he would have been happy with 69. Instead he shot a nine-under-par 63.
This holiday season Els has been doing what he does best; relaxing with friends at Fancourt while earning money for charity in the Ernie Els Invitational.
His wife Liezl, daughter Samantha and newborn son Ben are ensconced at his new house in Herold’s Bay.