Andy Capostagno
WHO IS … ERNIE ELS?
Ernie Els comes back to earth this week. Els plays in the Players Championship at Royal Cape for a total purse which is less than a third of what he won alone at the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge last week. The Players Championship is the start of the lucrative summer section of the Vodacom tour, one of the last events of the millennium, and in keeping with that the total prize fund is R1 999 999,99.
Lots of money, to be sure, but small potatoes to Els, who admits, “I have got what I want already in life. [The $1- million] goes straight into the bank account. The money is a big bonus, don’t get me wrong, but I just wanted to win this tournament.”
The Million Dollar should never be confused with a major golf tournament; but for Els it carried greater emotional weight than for most of the other invitees. He has been South Africa’s golfer of the decade and one of the very few men to have won more than a single major over the same timescale. He has won the US Open twice, and the World Matchplay title three times. The fact that he had never won the Million Dollar in seven previous attempts was a serious omission from his CV.
“You guys have no idea! Before I came into this week I had two weeks off down at Fancourt and the only thing everybody could talk about was the Million Dollar. I have been trying to win this tournament and I have come close many times. It seems like when I did not win people took it the wrong way. I’d like to see other South Africans play in this [Million Dollar] tournament and see what they say.”
Right now they’d probably say, “We’re all playing for second place again,” for if Els puts on a display at Royal Cape even half as impressive as last week’s he cannot be beaten. Seasoned Els watchers, familiar with the long, languid swing and the matchless calm of the man, had never seen him hit the ball quite so well.
Walking the course with Els at Sun City was instructive, for what was missing from television was the gasps of the crowd, watching another white missile disappear into the distance. It is true of artists in every sphere of human achievement: they make the exceptional look commonplace.
Els was on the fairway almost all the time, within 4m of the flag with most of his approaches, and if he had holed every putt that hit the lip of the hole and stayed out he would have shot closer to 253 than 263 for his four trips around the Gary Player Country Club.
If 1999 has been a less than stellar year for Els it is because of the caprice shown by his golf ball on the greens. If he had had Bobby Locke to putt for him he would be inhabiting the same universe as Tiger Woods, instead of saying, “He plays on a different level, but I think the way I played this week I would probably have given him a good go.”
The millennium lists are all coming out and locally the arguments rage over who was South Africa’s golfer of the century, Locke, Els or Player. Denis Hutchinson once told me, “I have never seen a more complete golfer than Bobby Locke. I have seen people who could hit it farther, higher and do more with it, but none that had it all the way Bobby had.”
Interestingly Hutchy is usually regarded as the best putter Southern Africa has produced apart from Locke, and to this day he is the short game guru for local players, Els included. His view of Els is that the sky’s the limit, but he cannot get close to Player’s total of nine majors.
He doesn’t need to, of course, and would happily hand Player the title of South African golfer of the century. The big difference is that Player did it all with the will to win emanating from every pore in his body. It would be difficult to imagine a greater character contrast than that between Els and Player, and it was a delight to see the grand master applauding the young pretender from the stands at Sun City.
Els seems to be able to compete without the rough edges. People liked Locke, they admired Player, but they love Els. On the 14th hole in the third round at Sun City, Els’s drive missed the fairway by a couple of metres and came to rest in an ant colony. He looked at the ball, asked for a rules official to come to the scene and then turned to the 30 or so people who had gathered on the “wrong” side of the fairway, and said, “I don’t think I’ll get the ruling, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
SO SAYING, HE PLAYED THE BALL AS IT LAY AND MARCHED ON TO THE TITLE WITH 30 MORE FANS IN HIS BACK POCKET. HE WILL NOT ALWAYS BE AROUND, OR PLAYING TO SUCH A STANDARD. IF YOU CAN GET TO ROYAL CAPE THIS WEEKEND, GO AND CELEBRATE THE MAN WHO MAY NOT BE THE GOLFER OF THE CENTURY, BUT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST “OKES” OF ALL TIME.