Ernie Els admits his swing is no better than average as he tries to fine-tune his game with new coach Butch Harmon.
Els, who plays in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth this week, turned to Harmon after opting to replace previous coach David Leadbetter, but the South African is still not completely happy with his revamped swing.
”Technically I got out of whack. When I started working with Butch I was probably a three out of 10,” he said.
”I’m slowly getting up to maybe five or six now and hopefully by the second Major [next month’s US Open] I’ll be up to seven and going forward.
”David is a great friend and we’d worked together for 18 years. It was tough to tell him I wanted to listen to somebody else for a while, but I’m glad he understood and that just shows you the character of the guy.
”I saw what Butch had done with Adam Scott. I think he’s probably got the best swing in golf right now.”
Els is on familiar territory at Wentworth. He owns a house alongside the West Course and will continue to do so when his family’s base moves to Florida so that his son Ben can receive treatment for his autism.
”Obviously it’s great to live at home and sleep in my own bed,” he said.
”I’m keeping the house and we’ll spend the summers here.”
But although the South African has won seven World Match Play titles at Wentworth, the best he has managed in the BMW PGA Championship are three runners-up finishes. — Sapa-AFP