MICHAEL VLISMAS, Carnoustie | Sunday 10.00pm.
IT was perhaps not as severe as Jean Van de Velde’s disappointment, but Ernie Els’ own major misery this year continued as he again failed to realise his expectations at the British Open.
While Van de Velde was self-destructing in spectacular fashion on the drenched fairways of Carnoustie and Paul Lawrie claimed an almost farcical play-off victory, Els would have been trying to find the answers to a million questions about where his major game has disappeared to.
By his own admittance, the greatest players were winning one major a year at their peak, and the double US Open champion is now certainly feeling the pressure of moving from “want to win the British Open” to “must win the British Open”.
A one-over par 72 in Sunday’s dramatic final round, for a total of 14-over par 298, was the best score the South African could offer during a frustrating week at Carnoustie for him and his compatriots.
South African Open champion David Frost’s 10-over par finish following a final-round 74 was the best of the southern Africans.
Frost got off to a disastrous final-round start when he bogeyed the first and then double-bogeyed the second, where he argued with a rules official who refused to allow him a drop after his hooked drive ended up in a bad lie next to a cart path.
He proceeded to hack the ball only a few feet and then hurled his club back into the bag in anger.
However, Frost recovered well enough to cap what has been a relatively successful week for the Cape wine farmer.
Retief Goosen was next best on 11-over after a 71, while Nick Price and Mark McNulty both finished their championships on 17-over following a 77 and 75 respectively.
Els’ performance might well have been an improvement on his missed cut in this year’s US Open and then a devastating 80 in final round of the US Masters.
But it’s far from the kind of golf he is capable of playing.
And the way in which the normally composed Els struggled his way around Carnoustie suggested that, in the end, the severely tough layout was not his greatest undoing.
He certainly seemed to imply that new caddie Neil Wallace had some part to play as well, particularly with several wrong club selections during the week.
“I haven’t had these problems in majors before, thinking about clubs and hoping they are the right ones. It’s not the right way to play. I don’t know what we are going to do. I’ll have a chat with Neil and see what the hell we can figure out. I just don’t need this wrong club thing, especially when I haven’t been playing with a lot of confidence,” a clearly exasperated Els was quoted as saying. — MWP