THE Big Easy was responsible for the course changes at Wentworth last year and will be looking forward to trying to add to his record six wins at the World Match Play, especially as he missed out in 2005 with an injury.
The South African, winner of three major championships, is slowly returning to his top form after he injured his left knee while on a sailing trip with his family last year. It was no surprise that he should injure himself off the course while indulging in another sport. He is a keen player and watcher of all sports, particularly the Springboks rugby side.
Els was born in Johannesburg and played rugby to a high level before hopes of a career with the oval ball were put aside because of his brilliance in other sports. He won the Eastern Transvaal Junior Golf Championship at the age of 13 and could have chosen either tennis or cricket at that stage but by the age of 14 he decided to focus on golf. He first came to prominence in 1984 when he won the Junior World Golf Championship in the 13 to 14-year-old category. Little did he know at the time but he was sharing the plaudits that week with a certain Tiger Woods, who triumphed in the 9 to 10-year-old category.
One of the proudest moments for Els came at Wentworth when he saw off Severiano Ballesteros to win his first World Match Play title in 1994. Els’s father, Neels, was sitting in the locker room waiting to congratulate his son when he was approached by Ballesteros. “I played very well today but your son is very special,” Ballesteros said. Els found his father in tears when he entered the changing room later.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Els is known for his willingness to participate in tournaments around the world and regularly plays in Asia, Australasia and South Africa. This has allowed him to sample the different style of courses throughout the globe and led to him setting up his own course-design business, which has built in China, South Africa and America while others are under construction as far afield as Dubai and Honolulu.
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He helps to run a charitable foundation that supports golf among underprivileged youngsters in South Africa, and this year his foundation took on Woods’s in the first Friendship Cup. Els’s side ran out easy winners in a Ryder Cup-style format. To add to his all-round approach to life and business, he has also lent his name and expertise to a highly regarded winemaking business based on a 72-hectare farm on the slopes of the Helderberg mountain in his native country.
FACT FILE
Age: 36
Nationality: South African
Wins: 61 and winner of the European Tour Order of Merit in 2003 and 2004
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Major wins: 3 (US Open, 1994 and 1997; Open, 2002)
Major record in 2006: Masters: tied 27th; US Open: tied 26th; Open: 3rd; US PGA: tied 16th
World ranking: 7
How he qualified for World Match Play: Eighth on the Major Championship ranking
Previous WMP experience: Ten appearances from 1994 to 2004, winner a record six times