Sport

Els ready for the 'toughest of the whole lot'

In his first British Open, as an amateur, Ernie Els missed the cut

Philip Reid at Carnoustie
Wed Jul 18 2007 - 01:00

In his first British Open, as an amateur, Ernie Els missed the cut. It was to be his one and only time to suffer such a fate; and, in his professional days, very few players - with the exception of Tiger Woods - have played as consistently well in this major as the South African with the languid swing.

Els has played this major on 16 occasions, and recorded nine top-10 finishes. Yet, for a player known as "The Big Easy", his one and only win came the hard way: he was involved in a four-man play-off involving Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington and Thomas Levet at Muirfield in 2002, finally getting the better of Levet in sudden death after the two Aussies had been eliminated at the end of the initial four play-off holes.

Since that victory, Els has gone 18th-2nd-34th-3rd to confirm that he has the game suited for links golf and, while he has struggled to hit the heights of old for much of this season, there was sufficient evidence of a resurgence with his third-place finish in last week's Scottish Open to indicate his competitive juices will once again flow at Carnoustie.

"Can you enjoy a major?" he wondered, before answering: "You enjoy a major afterwards. From Thursday to Sunday, it is hard work. And it is going to be the same here this week. It is going to be very tough, very difficult. So, whether you enjoy that or not depends on where you finish."

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Of his liking for links golf, he observed: "I think you either like it or not. Luckily for me, I found a natural way to play links courses from a very early age. It might have been from watching it on TV when I was young, but I just found the natural way of hitting bump-and-run shots and hitting the ball low in the wind . . . and I think some of the guys have had problems trying to change their games to cope with links courses."

In Els's opinion, Carnoustie is the toughest course on the British Open rota. "It's definitely the toughest of the whole lot. It's got length. It's got great bunkering. You've really got to have your wits about you to play this golf course.

"It's probably the best bunkered course you'll find anywhere in the world . . . and it seems like the wind is always blowing . . . It's going to be a very tough test."

Given his record, with six top-three finishes and seven top-fives, Els will likely look forward to that test more than most.