Ernie Els is certainly one of the players who must sometimes wonder just how many majors he would have won had he not played in the same era as Tiger Woods.
Ernie Els won four major titles between 1994 and 2012, with two triumphs each at the US Open and The Open Championship. He also finished second on six occasions in his major championship career.
And of course, he had to share the peak of his career with Tiger Woods. Woods won 14 of his 15 majors between the South African’s first and last major victories.
They had some incredible duels, perhaps most notably at the Mercedes Championships in the first PGA Tour event of the new millennium. On that occasion, it was Woods who triumphed in an enthralling playoff.
Ernie Els jokes he made a mistake when Tiger Woods asked him a question at the 1996 Open Championship
Golf has found perhaps someone to take the mantle from Woods in Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler has won three majors already and is halfway to the career grand slam. And there is an inevitably when the 28-year-old is in full flight.
Els would have seen a lot of that in Woods. And when asked about his first impressions of the American on the Dan Patrick Show, Els joked how he made a real error when Woods sought his advice.
“I remember playing the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club, and that was another favourite golf course of mine, and Tiger was playing the pro-am, and everybody was talking about Tiger. I think this was back in ’94 even or ’95. He’s a couple of years younger than me. So we all stood around this little kid and everybody said he’s going to be the next thing, so I met Tiger back in those days, and he played in quite a few events as an amateur. I was paired with him. I think I was paired with him in ’95 when John Daly won The Open Championship at St Andrews, I was paired with Peter Jacobsen, Tiger and myself. I was also paired with him at the US Open at Shinnecock in ’95. So we played a lot of golf together at a very early age for him, so I’ve known him for a long time,” he said.
“He didn’t quite win his first one, he didn’t win his second one, but I think by the third one, he figured it out. I think he won in Vegas or something ridiculous.
“I remember speaking to Tiger. I had a close finish at The Open Championship that Tom Lehman won at Lytham St Annes, and I finished second. I was sitting in the locker room, there’s just a wall between the 18th green and the clubhouse where the locker room is, the men’s locker room. I sat there, I was having a couple of beers reflecting on how close it was, and Tiger slid in next to me and he started talking to me. He says, ‘you think I’m ready?’ I said, ‘what do you mean? What are you talking about?’ He says, ‘I’m thinking about turning pro’. And it was probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I should have told him, ‘go back to Stanford. Get a real job. You’re not good enough’.”
The remarkable start Tiger Woods made to his professional career
Woods definitely appeared to be ready to turn professional. He finished the 1996 Open Championship as the low amateur in 22nd place. He had also been the best-performing amateur at The Masters the previous year.
And, as Els notes, it did not take long for Woods to prove that he belonged on the bigger stages.
He won his first PGA Tour title later on in 1996 in Las Vegas. Within a few months, he had won his first major title and put the world on notice that there was something different about Tiger Woods.
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