While Ernie Els has won all around the world, the fact that he is able to “feel the links land” under his feet at this week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon ensures that he can never be totally ruled out as a title contender.
Former World No 1 Els, a four-time major winner, claimed two Open Championships a decade apart, in 2002 (at Muirfield) and 2012 (Royal Lytham & St Annes).
But now at 242 in the world rankings, the 46-year-old Els still has an exemption to play at the Open, and his fifth-place finish at the recent Quicken Loans National in the US has given him some confidence going into Thursday’s first round, where he will tee up alongside 2013 champion Phil Mickelson of the United States and England’s Lee Westwood.
“We got in yesterday, and I was going to play a practice round. But the weather was pretty awful, so I watched Andy Murray win and Lewis Hamilton win – there was some great sport yesterday,” Els told Sky Sports News on Monday while on the practice putting green.
“But coming on to the grounds this morning, you get that buzz. You just want to get out there and feel the links land under your feet and hit those shots, and get ready for Thursday.
“I’m okay! I’ve had two weeks off and we were down in London with the family, and playing a bit of social golf and just chilling and so on. Before that, I had a pretty good week in DC, I finished fifth there. So, I needed to get a bit of a finish because I have been working quite hard on my game and it’s nice to get a bit of a finish.”
Els missed the cut at both the Masters and US Open this year, but did well in his previous outing at Troon in 2004, when he lost in a playoff to American Todd Hamilton.
Asked if those memories could inspire him to be a title challenger this weekend, Els chuckled and said: “Well, I wish! I had my chances there, Todd (Hamilton) played pretty well. I still remember the putt on 18 when I didn’t hit it hard enough and it just swung before the hole – I still think about that.
“But we had a great championship. To get into a playoff, you know, standing here, you’ll take that. But I still have good memories of that, we had a good championship.”
Els believes that the weather will be a major factor at Troon, with strong winds and rain forecast from Friday through to Sunday. “It could be big this week. We all know that when we’re up here in Scotland, the weather changes quite a lot during the day,” he said.
“I remember when Louis (Oosthuizen) won at St Andrews in 2010, he had a very early start-time of 6.30 and 11.30 was his afternoon time – and he took advantage of that because the weather was pretty good there.
“And we could have the same situation here. Who knows what the weather holds, but I know I saw a lot of rain, a lot of cloud on my iPad! So I know there’s going to be a lot of moisture, so we are going to have to wait and see what happens.”
Els will tee off at 2.26pm on Thursday and is one of nine South Africans in the field, headed by World No 10 Branden Grace and Oosthuizen at 14.
SA First-Round Groups (SA times)
9.03am: Branden Grace, Patrick Reed, Byeong Hun An
9.25am: Louis Oosthuizen, Padraig Harrington, Jamie Donaldson
10.58am: George Coetzee, Smylie Kaufman, Chris Kirk
11.42am: Richard Sterne, Brendan Steele, Matt Jones
12.15pm: Haydn Porteous, Scott Fernandez, Rikard Karlberg
1.53pm: Charl Schwartzel, Paul Casey, Kevin Na
2.26pm: Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood
4.10pm: Brandon Stone, JB Holmes, Rafael Cabrera-Bello
5.16pm: Zander Lombard, Ryan Evans, Callum Shinkwin
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