Andy Capostagno Golf
If there is one thing guaranteed to worry most of the world’s best golfers it is the sight of Ernie Els looking relaxed. The big man showed up at Stellenbosch Golf Club on Wednesday looking bronzed and unshaven, as if he had celebrated winning the Alfred Dunhill PGA by chilling out on the beach. Which is exactly what he did.
There was a time last year when Els looked as if he would rather have been anywhere but on a golf course. The most admired swing in golf had been laid low by a back ailment and Els only played the US Open because he was the defending champion. When word arrived that he had begun to consult a swing doctor many feared the worst.
But if it is true that golf is played mostly in the space between the ears then it is also true that nothing cures second thoughts at the top of the backswing more completely than winning a tournament. Els was so impressive at Houghton last week that looking beyond him for a winner in this week’s South African Open is scarcely an option.
Consulting his record in the event increases the feeling that everyone else is playing for second place. Els made his breakthrough as a tournament professional by winning the South African Open at Houghton in 1992.
Since then he has never finished worse than seventh, winning again at Royal Cape in 1996 and for a third time at Durban Country Club last year. Els says matter of factly, “It’s my national Open so it means a lot to me.”
It actually takes an outsider to put Els’s laid-back competitiveness into perspective. Bernhard Langer, one of several European superstars here in desperate search of Ryder Cup points, said, “If Ernie plays well he’s really hard to catch. In form he’s long and straight and he always has a great short game.”
Behind the scenes Els has been working hard on that apparently effortless swing and with his coach Robert Baker in town he will not be short of advice if required. But a confident Els scarcely requires advice and he looked rather like the schoolboy caught stealing jam when admitting that he had turned up a day late for his appointment with Baker.
He can only really go wrong if he fails to find the fairway on a regular basis this week. The rough is up, the fairways are tree-lined and par has been reduced from the club mark of 72 to 71 by changing the first hole from a par five to a par four.
Welsh wizard Ian Woosnam believes that the course could be set up for Mark McNulty. The Zimbabwean was in contention at Houghton last week without ever really being at the top of his game and the only question about his competitiveness in Stellenbosch is the length of the course and the fact that it is at sea level.
Another man who will surely be in contention this week is David Frost who is returning to his roots. Frost was born down the road in Bellville and grew up playing Stellenbosch. He has gone on to bigger and better things, but as soon as he had made enough money in the United States and at the Million Dollar he invested it in a wine farm just outside Paarl.
After a disappointing 1998 season Frost found his game with a little help from the family and finished joint third at Houghton last week. With confidence high it is serendipitous to be pegging it up on home soil and this could be just the kick-start his season needs. So if it’s not Els this week it might be Frost. But don’t look beyond Els.
ENDS