A profile of one of Golf’s finest players : Ernie Els

Winner of 71 tournaments in his career, ‘The Big Easy’ is one of Golf’s great characters

Theodore Ernest ‘Ernie Els’ Els, a former World No 1 was born on October 17th, 1969 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Nicknamed "The Big Easy" because of his imposing stature (6 ft 3 in) yet languid, fluid swing, Els 71 career victories included four major championships: the U.S. Open in 1994, held at Oakmont and 1997 at Congressional, and The Open Championship in 2002 at Muirfield and in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

He is among the very few golfers (6) who have won both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship twice.

Other achievements, as well as highlights in his career, include: Being on top of the 2003 and 2004 European Tour Order of Merit (money list) and also holding the record of winning the World Match Play Championship (7 times).

Ernie was the first member to earn €25,000,000 from European Tour events and at a time the leading career money winner on the European Tour, until 2011 when he was overtaken by Lee Westwood.

He had a record number (788) of weeks being ranked in the top ten in World Golf.

On his first time in the ballot, Els was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2010 and was later inducted in May 2011.

When not on the course, Els runs his own golf business, a charitable foundation that supports youths in South Africa, he also has a winemaking business.

The life and times of Ernie Els

Brith and younger years

Ernie grew up in Lambton, Germiston, South Africa. At age 8, he engaged in various sports such as rugby, cricket, tennis, and golf. He was a skilled junior tennis player and went ahead to win the Eastern Transvaal Junior Championship at the age of 13. Else father "Neels" who was a trucking executive at the Germiston Golf course first taught Els how to play the game of golf,

He went on to even become a better player than his father and Dirk (his elder brother), and was already a scratch handicap at the age of 14. It was during this time he noticed he had more passion for golf than the others, and decided to place his whole focus in that direction.

Els at the World Golf Junior Championship - 1984

In 1984, he won the Junior World Golf Championship in the 13-14 boys category. In that year, Phil Mickelson was second to him. Some months after his 17th birthday, Ernie won the South Africa Amateur Championship, thereby breaking the record held by Gary Player to become the youngest-ever winner of that event.

Ernie gets married

In 1998, Els got married to his wife Liezl in Cape Town, and they have two children Samantha and Ben. In 2008, Els started to display an "Autism Speaks" logo on his golf bag, to support their then 5 years old son who is autistic. They do split time between South Africa and their Family home in Jupiter, Florida, to get better treatment for Ben's autism. However, their main residence is at Wentworth Estate close to Wentworth Golf Club in the south of England.

Ernie Els Professional career

Ernie won the South Africa Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1989, and turned professional that same year.

In 1991, Els won his first professional tournament on the then-South Africa Tour (Now known as the Sunshine Tour). He also won the Sunshine order of Merit in 1991/92 and 1994/95 seasons.

Els won his first tournament outside of South Africa 1993, at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan.

He went further to win his first major championship in 1994 at the U.S. Open. After 72 hours, he was on a tie with Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts. This saw them go to an 18-hole playoff the next day. Although starting the playoff bogey-triple bogey, he was able to match Roberts' score of 74. Els birdied the second hole of sudden death and that saw him claim his first U.S. Open title.

Although early in his career, he showed his versatility by winning the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, and defeated Colin Montgomerie once more to claim the Toyota World Match Play Championship 4 & 2.

Ernie Els - 10 best shots of his PGA career

Els defeated Steve Elkington 3 & 1 to defend his World Match Play Championship the following year. He won the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in the United States, and then went back home (South Africa) to win it twice. In 1996, Els defeated Vijay Singh in the final 3 & 2 to win the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth for the third consecutive time.

To date, no player in the history of golf has ever managed to win three successive titles in a one-on-one tournament other than Els. He ended the year winning his home tournament at the South African Open.

In just his third start on the PGA Tour Champions (March 2020), Els won the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California. He finished with a 4-under-par 67 to finish 54 holes in 16-under-par 197, going ahead of Fred Couples, Robert Karlsson, and Glen Day with two holes.

The 2002 Open - Els Career highlight

Above all the achievements mentioned, the highlight of his career was in 2002. He started that year with a win at the Heineken Classic at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. He then went further to outplay World Number one Tiger Woods to lift the Genuity Championship title in America.

A great all-around player, with a beautiful swing and solid putting, Ernie is without a doubt one of Golf’s greatest players.

The 2002 Open - Ernie’s finest moment

The pinnacle of that season was at his Open Championship triumph in rather tough conditions at Muirfield, where he overcame a four-man playoff to take home the famous and prestigious Claret Jug trophy for the very first time. The South African went on to clinch his fourth World Match Play title, and also win his third Nedbank Challenge in four years, with dominating a world-class field and winning by 8 shots.

Ernie Els PGA Tour Wins

NO.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-Up
1	2020 Jun 1994	U.S. Open	-5 (69-71-66-73=279)	Playoff	Colin Montgomerie, Loren Roberts
2	14 May 1995	GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic	−17 (69-61-65-68=263)	3 strokes	Robin Freeman, Mike Heinen, D.A Weibring
3	9 Jun 1996	Buick Classic	−13 (65-66-69-71=271)	8 strokes	Steve Elkington, Tom Lehman, Jeff Maggert, Craig Parry
4	15 Jun 1997	U.S. Open (2)	−4 (71-67-69-69=276)	1 stroke	Colin Montgomerie
5	22 Jun 1997	Buick Classic (2)	−16 (64-68-67-69=268)	2 strokes	Jeff Maggert
6	22 Mar 1998	Bay Hill Invitational	−14 (67-69-65-73=274)	4 strokes	Bob Estes, Jeff Maggert
7	21 Feb 1999	Nissan Open	−14 (68-66-68-68=270)	2 strokes	Tiger Woods
8	6 Aug 2000	The International	48 pts (15-19-6-8=48)	4 points	Phil Mickelson
9	3 Mar 2002	Genuity Championship	−17 (66-67-66-72=271)	2 strokes	Tiger Woods
10	21 Jul 2002	The Open Championship	−6 (70-66-72-70=278)	Playoff	Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington, Thomas Levet
11	12 Jan 2003	Mercedes Championship	−31 (64-65-65-67=261)	8 strokes	K. J. Choi, Rocco Mediate
12	19 Jan 2003	Sony Open in Hawaii	−16 (66-65-66-67=264)	Playoff	Aaron Baddeley
13	18 Jan 2004	Sony Open in Hawaii (2)	−18 (67-64-66-65=262)	Playoff	Harrison Frazar
14	6 Jun 2004	Memorial Tournament	−18 (68-70-66-66=270)	4 strokes	Fred Couples
15	3 Oct 2004	WGC-American Express Championship	−18 (69-64-68-69=270)	1 stroke	Denmark Thomas Bjørn
16	2 Mar 2008	The Honda Classic	−6 (67-70-70-67=274)	1 stroke	Luke Donald
17	14 Mar 2010	WGC-CA Championship (2)	−18 (68-66-70-66=270)	4 strokes	Charl Schwartzel
18	29 Mar 2010	Arnold Palmer Invitational (2)	−11 (68-69-69-71=277)	2 strokes	Edoardo Molinari, Kevin Na
19	22 Jul 2012	The Open Championship (2)	−7 (67-70-68-68=273)	1 stroke	Adam Scott