Hail Ernie, King of Sun City
Brad Morgan
2 December 2002
For those lucky enough to have witnessed the performance Ernie Els produced at Sun City to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge by eight shots, it should be clear that the South African superstar has the ability to do something many would describe as impossible: take on Tiger Woods and succeed him as the world’s number one golfer.
The course at the Gary Player Country Club boasted a whole host of new bunkers for the 2002 version of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, designed to make low scoring a whole lot tougher.
Els admitted that he found almost all the new sand traps during the course of the tournament, but he handled them brilliantly, as he did his entire game throughout the four rounds of the event. He opened with a round of 70, followed that up with a 65, then a 69 and finished with a stunning nine-under par 63 for a four-round total of 21-under par 267.
Heading into the final round with a four-shot lead. he was expected to protect it on the
final day. Instead he tore a challenging course to shreds, finishing with seven birdies over the final 10 holes, and completing the back nine in just 30 shots.
Remember, the other nine players in the Sun City field all ranked in the world’s top 20 - this wasn’t just any opposition that Els left for dead.
His win was the culmination of a very good year for the Big Easy. In Australia he won the Heineken Classic, in the United Arab Emirates he laid claim to the Dubai Desert Classic title, and in the United Kingdom he clinched the Cisco World Matchplay title for a fourth time. On the US PGA Tour he won the Genuity Championship, and in his biggest win of the year he was victorious in the British Open, claiming his third major title in the process.
A further testament to his extraordinary year can be found in his Order of Merit achievements in both Europe and the United States. In Europe he finished third in the standings, just less than 110 000 Euros behind the winner,
Retief Goosen. Els, though, played six less tournaments than Goosen and runner-up Padraig Harrington.
On the US PGA Tour he finished in fifth spot. Tiger Woods led the way, followed by Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and David Toms, who played eight, 10 and nine tournaments more than Els respectively.
Big breakthrough
Els’ big breakthrough came in the British Open, where he held it all together while others collapsed in brutal conditions during the third round of the tournament played at Muirfield. He went on to capture the title in a playoff, and that win, after five years without a major victory, appears to have given the South African ace the confidence boost he required to lift his play up a level.
He isn’t known as the ‘Big Easy’ for nothing, but Els admits that he is just like any other player who plays the game: he feels the pressure and the frustration.
However, another part of the puzzle seems to have fallen in place
since he started working with sport psychologist Jos Vanstiphout. Retief Goosen recommended the Belgian to Els and his advice to give Vanstiphout a try has proved to be very valuable indeed. Such has been the success of the two South Africans that Vanstiphout has become a very sought after man, not that Els would mind paying him a dollar or two following his run of success.
Watching Els at Sun City, he looked like a man in complete control of everything; he was relaxed, striking his drives crisply, putting with remarkable touch, and finding answers to the questions asked when he did stray from the fairways.
He played the way a man full of confidence in his own ability plays and the manner in which he produced the goods at Sun City, where he has produced an astounding 28 sub-par rounds in succession, suggests that the days of Tiger Woods’ dominance could be numbered.
It would be good for golf, better for South African sports fans and even better for Els, probably
South Africa’s most dominant sportsman in the world today. It all goes to show that nice guys don’t necessarily finish last.
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