A couple of weeks ago Ernie Els was back in the country for just three days to get his second child, Ben, christened at the little church in Herold’s Bay. It’s about a three wood from his newly completed house, which occupies prime position overlooking the sandy bay. The local florist spent the morning trying to cover up all signs of Catholicism in the church — ”But I couldn’t do much about the altarpiece.”
Now it’s Saturday afternoon in the members’ bar at Fancourt and Els is watching the FA Cup final. He has a house just outside London, but he seems to be shouting for Southampton and doesn’t get animated when Arsenal score the only goal of the game. Maybe he thinks I’ll tell Terry Paine if he doesn’t back the Saints.
Els is as South African as droe wors and mampoer, but his job makes him a global citizen. He has won golf tournaments on every continent where professional golf is played and has houses in three of them, but his speech patterns have become more Americanised than anything else. His sentences are peppered with ”kinda” and ”gonna”.
Only the foaming glass of Kilkenny on the table betrays him. That and the fact that, as he settles into the sofa, he says, ”Talk to me, Cappy. I’ve got a cold so you better listen careful … ly.” He remembered his grammar. I’m touched.
Soon Els will be among the favourites at the United States Open and a month after that he’ll be defending his title at the British Open — The Open Championship, to give her proper name. Everyone who has ever been even slightly close to Els has noticed the difference last year’s win at Muirfield has made to the man. He has noticed it too.
”If I stopped right now I think I’ve done quite a lot. I’ve got some things to prove to myself — I’d love to be able to complete the grand slam — but if I never won another tournament it hasn’t been a bad career.”
You can say that again. Only the fact that South Africa has produced two other multiple major winners stops us from calling him the best golfer this country has ever produced. Bobby Locke won the Open four times and Gary Player — Els’s hero — is one of the precious few to have won all four major titles and nine in all.
Perhaps even those antecedents would count for little if Els had not had the misfortune to share the best years of his golfing career with Tiger Woods. ”If he’s got his ‘A’ game with him the rest of us are hanging on to his shirt tails,” is Els’s matter-of-fact description of what sets Woods apart. ”I’m a contender for sure, and I’m one of the best players in the world, but that’s as good as it gets.”
The interesting thing is that Els has looked at Woods from both sides now with his sanity intact. He went through the despair of not being good enough, went through the positive thinking bit with Jos van Stiphout, and now he’s content to just be a golfer with a family to support.
”I’m at the age where I’ve made peace with the fact that I cannot live in South Africa. I have to live in England and Samantha [their first child] goes to a good school there; Ben probably will too. In future years I think it’ll be tougher for me to stay away from the family — I’ve already noticed it more this year.”
He’s noticed it despite having a dream start to his golfing year, winning twice in the United States, once in Australia, once in Dubai and missing a 90cm putt for a win in Singapore, where he had to settle for second. And he did it all with new clubs, which used to be simply impossible. Nick Faldo, for instance, took a decade to recover his game after switching to Mizuno in the early 1990s.
Els won all three of his majors playing with Taylor Made, but Titleist made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and backed up the money with cutting edge equipment. All of which would be irrelevant were it not for Els’s newly positive demeanour.
”I was really excited to start playing again this year because everything was new. New clubs, new clothing, new shoes, new golf ball, new driver. My contract with Taylor Made ended on December 31 and the Titleist contract started on January 1. It was tough to manage the handover; I had to be very careful about what I was seen with in December. But when I left South Africa I felt that my swing was right on song and I went there with a great attitude and I putted well.”
But nobody has been talking about Els’s putting. They want to know how it is that one of the longest hitters on tour is now hitting the ball even further. Without quite suggesting that these tales of monstrous hitting have been made up, Els doesn’t get carried away: ”I would say that I carry my new driver eight to 10 yards further through the air, and if conditions are firm then I hit it 30 yards further because of the roll.”
For the record he uses a Titleist 983K driver with 8,5% of loft allied to the hot new ball, the Titleist Pro V1x. Those who say that equipment is killing the game will have their views vindicated by the statistics produced in this month’s edition of Golf Digest.
In 1997, the year that Els won his second US Open, his average driving distance was 247m. This year it is 291m, 44m better. And remember, that’s not his best, that’s his average, because in Kapalua, Hawaii, in January this year he hit one drive 362,1m.
That would put him in the top three of most long-driving tournaments around the world, the difference being that while the gorillas with cow horns coming out of their car bonnets spend their lives looking for that one, record-breaking smite, Els has to go and find his ball and hit it again. To that end he has been working on his iron play and the fondly remembered long, liquid finish to his swing is almost a thing of the past.
”I’d say I still have that long finish when I hit my driver, but I’ve tried to shorten my swing with my irons to look for accuracy. Generally my whole swing is a lot shorter than it used to be.” There’s the paradox of golf that high handicappers never understand — swing short and hit long.
But there’s no getting away from the fact that he is playing with the right equipment. For confirmation you only need to look at Vijay Singh, a player often compared to Els throughout their careers. In 1997 Singh’s average driving length was 9m further than Els. Today it is 10m less. What driver does Singh use? A Taylor Made R510, the very one that Els would be using if he had not switched allegiance.
It is true, though, that the equipment matters not one whit if you’re not fit enough to use it, and Els’s glorious start to the year came to an abrupt end when he damaged a wrist in the gym. Golfers were among the last group of athletes to accept that physical conditioning plays a part in athletic excellence, but even his peers on tour were a little shocked to discover that he damaged his wrist hitting a punch bag. Even now, Els is a little coy about it.
”I was trying different things in my workouts. I kinda get bored with running and cycling and so I had this idea of doing some other stuff. I thought I’d take it a step further with the punch bag, but I definitely didn’t get there. I’ve got a much softer punch bag now and I’m taping my wrists!”
The injury came at exactly the wrong time, during the build-up to the US Masters in April. He was forced to miss the Players Championship and after an opening 79 at Augusta it looked as though his hunt for a green jacket was over before it had begun. But the golfing gods gave Els a shot at redemption, for Thursday’s play had been rained out, which meant 36 holes on Saturday and no time to dwell on that opening round.
”It was tough to put a 79 behind you when you had to turn round straight away and go out again 20 minutes later. At least Tiger had a bit more of a respectable first round than I did [Woods shot 76], but I’m proud of the way I came back.”
The comeback was by way of a six under par 66, a round that ensured he would be among the contenders on the final day. He finished 72, 70 and tied for sixth with Singh, frustratingly close, but not bad after the way it began.
Els is getting used to being frustrated at the Masters, but his day will surely come. Meanwhile he is off to Olympia Fields, near Chicago, for a shot at a third US Open title. It’s a course he’s never played, but being in the Chicago area he’s assuming that the wind will blow, and he also remembers watching another Fancourt member, John Bland, win the US Seniors Open there in 1995.
It’s safe to bet that Els will be in contention, although his presence in George was allegedly due to the fact that he was injured and unable to play in the Byron Nelson Championship in Texas. He was going back to Wentworth the next day, prepared to play in the Volvo PGA Championship on his home course (he finished fourth).
So you’re fit again, then Ernie.
”The wrist is not a problem anymore.”
What’s the injury you’re suffering from at the moment, then?
”The wrist.”
When his child’s christening is more important than a golf tournament, it is safe to assume that Ernie Els has his life in order.