Tiger Woods’ performances in the early 2000s are celebrated as the most dominant period of golf we have ever seen.
Between 2000 and 2005, Tiger Woods won eight major championships, completed the “Tiger Slam” by holding all four majors at the same time, and broke the record for the most consecutive cuts made on the PGA Tour with 264.
But what is sometimes forgotten when an all-time great comes along, in any sport, is the players that they prevent from having success of their own. How many players would have NBA championships if not for Michael Jordan? How many more Wimbledon winners would we have if not for Serena Williams?
Ernie Els fell victim to Woods’ dominance. The South African was a two-time major winner in 2000, having won the US Open twice, and topped the Official World Golf Rankings three times.
He had hopes of stacking up major championships himself, but then Woods came along and took them from him. Els finished his career with four major wins, but once said how many he thinks he could have won if Woods had never been around.
Ernie Els said how many majors he would have won without Tiger Woods
Els won the Open Championship in 2002 during Woods’ prime, but largely played the role of being a thorn in the side of the greatest golfer of all time. He finished runner-up at The Masters, The Open Championship, and the US Open in 2000, with Woods winning two of those majors.
It’s justifiable for Els to wonder how many more majors he could have won if he didn’t have to go through Woods, and he has a number in mind.
Speaking to Golf Australia in 2018, he said, “If he hadn’t been around, I would probably have won at least eight majors. I had a head start on many guys early on. I felt like the best player back then.”
He continued, “I was always in his shadow, which was understandable. He was the biggest thing in the game by far. For at least 10 years, it really felt like I was the ugly stepchild. I was a big player, a really good player. But he was a bit better. So it was tough.
“Looking back now, I feel proud that I played in that era. And I won four majors. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t have things too easy before Tiger.
“But when I found my stride – I was winning all over the world – I felt like I was the guy to beat every week. In 1994 I won seven times. People forget that. I won a major too. It was like, ‘Let’s go.’
“Then in 1995 I had another good year. The same in 1996. Then in 1997 he won the Masters by 12 shots. Even though I won the US Open that year, it was like, ‘Holy s–t.’ He changed everything. And that was that.”
Els had to wait until Woods’ decline in the early 2010s to pick up his fourth major. He won The Open in 2012, becoming the eighth player to win major tournaments in three different decades.
But ultimately, he was one of many to be second-best to Woods during his career, and he went on to explain the biggest difference between himself and the 15-time major winner.
Ernie Els named the biggest difference between himself and Tiger Woods
Even as a teenager, Woods could do things that no other professional in the game could do. He was longer than almost anyone off the tee, could play shots with every possible shape, and he was phenomenal around and on the greens.
But Els named the areas of Woods’ game that were the key difference between him and everyone else. He said, “His ball-flight was the biggest thing. He could hit shots that I just couldn’t pull off. Not like he did.
“Where I would ‘feed’ the ball into greens from right-to-left, he had the massive high shot that would come down and stop almost immediately.
“I noticed that most at Hoylake in 2006. We played together there. The course was bone-hard. There were a couple of par-3s where I just couldn’t hold the greens. But his shots would. It was such a big difference. He just had that strong, high ball.
“Our short games were similar. But boy could he putt. He made Jordan Spieth today look very ordinary. I would go so far as to say no one has ever putted as well as Tiger for as long as Tiger. He went for years without missing a putt that really mattered.
“That’s what people forget. He didn’t win the US Open by 15 shots and the Open by eight with his long game. He did those things by holing everything.”
Between 2002 and 2005, Woods had 1,543 putts from inside of three feet. He missed only three of them. At his best, he would never allow the door to creak open for competitors, and unfortunately for players like Els, they were never allowed a glimmer of hope when Woods was on form.
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