Golf needs a winning Ernie Els

How hungry is Ernie?

It is five years since Ernie Els last won a major – The Open Championship in 2002 just a month before he seriously injured his knee in a sailing accident. The recovery from this injury took a long time and the damage to his confidence took even longer. There was also a feeling around that life had perhaps become a bit too easy for Ernie.

He has a beautiful house on the Wentworth estate and his two children are happily at school in this pleasant, and exclusive, part of leafy Surrey. Like all the very top sportsmen Els travels by private plane and if he never swung a club in anger again he would have luxury for the rest of his life.

Some wondered if the fierce determination to win was there anymore. Els also has a ‘hinterland’ – in particular the ‘Ernie Els Foundation’ which funds a programme for the development of golfers from under-privileged backgrounds. How appealing would the hard grind of the tour be when a comfortable and rewarding life away from golf was on offer?

Els leads the challenge to PGA hegemony

Back in 2004 there was a bit of a storm when Ernie Els stood his ground after the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) sent him a letter demanding more appearances if he wished to retain his PGA Tour membership. The PGA retreated from confrontation but the event revealed just how strong, some would say arrogantly so, the PGA is on the world golf scene.

It seems at times the PGA is not satisfied with the fact three of the four majors take place on American soil and that they are dominated by American players. Since Ernie’s last major win in 2002, 14 of the 21 majors have been won by Americans. Els has pointed out that golf is a world game: ‘There's a world outside America and I'm part of it. They can't restrict me from playing where I want to play,’ he has said.

Els can lead the Tiger challenge

Of the 21 majors since The Open in 2002, five of the 14 American wins were by Tiger Woods and three by Phil Mickleson. Over this time no other player has won more than one event. Contrast this with golden eras like the early 1980s when Ballesteros, Watson and Nicklaus (all multiple major winners) battled one another for wins.

In the Woods era (13 major wins out of 44 – an astonishing success rate) not one player has seriously mounted a challenge to the Tiger. Ernie Els has always seemed the most gifted of the possible challengers and had he not been injured in 2005 then maybe he might have offered a more sustained challenge to the relentless Tiger march.

Two golfing worlds

No American golfer has won a European Tour event this year (they don’t play in many of them) and whilst there have been some good results for non Americans on the PGA Tour, most of them have based themselves in the US in order to compete.

The world’s leading Americans stay mostly at home – Woods has played only twice outside of the US this year, at Carnoustie and in Dubai, while Mickleson and the other top players are even more reluctant to travel. This means that there are two worlds of golf and Ernie Els is one of the few top players who tries to bridge the gap between them.

Golf is unique amongst the other truly international sports in not having a world governing body and this can, and has, led to fixture list conflicts and to player confusion. Colin Montgomerie, the leading European player for years, has played 126 times in the US and has not won once. Had Monty chosen to base himself in the States, as Nick Faldo who won nine PGA tournaments did for a time, then no doubt he would have won there many times.

The key point is that there are very few tournaments where the best Americans pitch themselves against the best from the rest of the world and really only one of these events, The Open Championship, is outside of the US. Does this matter? I think that it does.

Fans around the world ought to be able to see Tiger Woods and the other top Americans – there are great courses and great players on all five continents and it is good that Ernie Els leads the way by playing on them all. It’s time for the Tiger to do the same!