As weekends go, it was not a bad one for Ernie Els. On Friday, he celebrated his 34th birthday with a two hole victory over fellow South African Tim Clark in the quarter-finals of the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club. On Saturday he celebrated being confirmed as winner of the Volvo Order of Merit for the first time with a 5 and 4 semi-final victory over old adversary Vijay Singh. And on Sunday, he celebrated a 4 and 3 victory in the 36 hole final over Denmark’s Thomas Björn with a £1 million first prize, the largest ever in Europe or America.
The win, his seventh around the globe in 2003, saw Els move alongside his fellow South African Gary Player and Spain’s Seve Ballesteros as a five time winner of the prestigious title.
Indeed it was Ballesteros, commenting on the final for BBC Television, who helped present the gleaming new Mark McCormack Trophy, in honour of the event’s late founder figure, and who paid Els the ultimate accolade. “Ernie is simply fantastic,” said the Spaniard. “He has more natural ability and talent than Tiger Woods. If he wants to be World Number One, he will be.”
These were sentiments that stirred ‘The Big Easy’. “Those are big words from one of my all time heroes,” said the South African. “But I do now feel that I can take my game to a new level.”
Certainly Els has few equals in the match play sphere at Wentworth Club, having collected his five titles in just ten years, during which time he has played 22 matches, winning 18 of them.
Highlight of his earlier rounds this year undoubtedly came in the semi-final against 1997 champion Singh. Four down after 15 holes, Els set a new World Match Play Championship record by winning eight holes in succession, the last three of the morning round and the first five of the afternoon, beating the seven hole sequence set by Tony Lema against Gary Player in 1965. In the process, Els turned the match on its head and gave himself the impetus to go on and win.
At the same time as Els was making imperious progress to the final through the top half of the draw, in the bottom half, Björn, who had never progressed more than one round in his three previous appearances, went about putting that record straight with a determined 4 and 3 first round win over American Len Mattiace, an excellent 5 and 4 dismissal of Masters Tournament Champion Mike Weir in the quarter-finals and a final green ousting of Open Golf Champion Ben Curtis in the semi-finals.
Although a fit man, Björn admitted that, perhaps, the demands of playing one more 36 hole match than Els over the course of the week had left him with just too few reserves in the tank to outgun the King of the Burma Road in the final.
The Dane was never in front and when Els went six up at the 29th it seemed the end would come quickly. Even when Björn won the 30th with a superb eagle three, it seemed only to be delaying the inevitable. As it turned out, that was the case, but not before Björn produced a moment of pure magic to thrill the thousands of spectators and the millions watching on television.
His four iron tee shot at the 179 yard 14th arrowed for the flag, took one bounce and rolled into the cup to win the doughty Dane a gleaming £37,000 Toyota Land Cruiser to go with his not inconsiderable runners-up cheque of £400,000.
Björn, who immediately promised the vehicle to his faithful caddie Billy Foster, challenged Els with a smile to “follow that.” Not surprisingly he did not manage the feat but at the next hole a curling 25 foot putt, one of many Els had sunk all week, finally settled an always good natured tussle between two close friends.
Their homes lie just 300 yards apart on the Wentworth Estate, their wives Liezl and Pernilla are friends, and their daughters Samantha and Filippa attend the same class at nursery school.
“Usually you want to go out there and get in a certain mood with an opponent,” said Els. “But that’s hard to do when your opponent is a close friend.” Björn was quick to agree and added: “It’s no shame to lose to such a great player.”
John Whitbread
