Ernie Els is really just one of the boys – except when he’s displaying his exceptional talents on the golf course
GOLF:David Davies
THE Christian names are Ernest Theodore but, if ever a man was an Ernie, it is the golfer who on Sunday became the first person to win the Toyota World Match Play Championship here for three consecutive years, Ernie Els.
This amiable South African beat the Fijian Vijay Singh by three and two, in front of a large and faithful crowd who trudged round a soggy and depressing West course, supporting a player who inspires affection wherever he goes.
They were rewarded by seeing history made. No one, not even Gary Player or Severiano Ballesteros, who have both won this title five times, has done the hat-trick, and in the aftermath of victory Els set new targets for himself.
Asked if he thought he could become No 1 in the world, the world No 3 said: “Yeah, I think I can do that. But you’ve got to win those big ones, and you’ve got to feel you’re number one. I have the confidence, I think I’m getting there. After all, I’ve beaten some pretty good guys here in the last three years.”
The final was his ninth successive match in this event and the list of his victims reads like a compendium of the world’s finest. In 1994 he beat Ballesteros and Jose-Maria Olazabal, followed by Colin Montgomerie in the final.
In 1995 it was Lee Janzen, Bernhard Langer and Steve Elkington, while this year he has dismissed Steve Stricker, Mark Brooks and Singh. In that time he has accumulated 500 000 in prize-money, 170 000 of it on Sunday; he is 63 under par for the three years and is averaging 1 634 per hole played. He was asked what he would do with it. “I guess I’ve got to buy a couple of rounds in the bar,” said the man who always knows when it is his turn. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
It would be difficult to imagine Singh taking the same view of victory, even though his first name means just that. The Fijian is a golfaholic, hitting endless streams of golf balls on the practice grounds of the world, and showing little sign that there is much else in his life. He has long been one of the best players in the world not to have a major championship but, unlike another such, Montgomerie, he has never sustained a challenge in one for very long.
On Sunday he got off to the best possible start with a birdie at the second hole and then having the third conceded after Els found the trees. But instead of building on it, Singh bunkered his tee-shot at the short fifth and then missed from a metre, saw Els birdie the eighth and then missed another short putt at the ninth. The match had been turned round and Singh was rarely in it again.
Part of the Els appeal is that his wet- weather gear is at best nondescript and, topped as it is by a baseball cap, he looks like one of the lads – which he is when not playing golf. He also shambles, rather than marches, up to the ball, further increasing the impression of an ambling oaf. But then, as he first of all settles into his stance and then hits the ball, any resemblance to a normal golfing human being ceases.
He has a fantastic range of shots, a great flair and a wonderful putting stroke and, while all these qualities are not, obviously, permanently present, sufficient of them usually are for him to be able to win even when not at his best.
Here he recognised as much, saying: “I just played steady. No heroics. As it turned out I was just good enough.” He was only four under par for the day – “not good”, he said, “but neither was the weather”.
ENDS