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From ‘absolute fool’ to Major champion
Just four months after looking like an "absolute fool" in his own words with no confidence in his putting, Ernie Els sank a 15-footer for birdie on the final green that won him the British Open on Sunday.
Just four months after looking like an "absolute fool" in his own words with no confidence in his putting, Ernie Els sank a 15-footer for birdie on the final green that won him the British Open on Sunday.
The 42-year-old South African completed a final-round 68 at Lytham to win the Claret Jug by one shot after Australian Adam Scott bogeyed the last four holes.
“Obviously, in March I looked like an absolute fool,” Els told reporters. “People were laughing at me and making jokes about me and really hitting me low, saying I'm done and I should hang it up. When you've been where I was, you have no confidence in putting, you don't want to have that one coming back. I was coasting everything up to the hole and wasn't giving the hole a scare.”
Since then, Els has completely changed his approach on the greens. “It comes from retraining your whole outlook on putting,” he said. “I just changed the whole thing, mindset, training, everything. And I was really going from a totally different angle, which I liked, because I tried everything else.”
Els, 1994 and 1997 US Open champion and British Open winner at Muirfield 10 years ago, said he had not seriously considered quitting the game.
Took inspiration
The former world number one said he took inspiration from his autistic nine-year-old son Ben and the “Els for Autism” Foundation he has set up. Els said he felt more settled now the foundation was running smoothly. “I think emotionally or mentally I'm also in a better place than I have been in the last couple of years with the whole situation,” he said.
