I Miss Ernie

Ernie%20Els.jpg
I'm not sure if it's his game or the fact that he shares the name with my favorite Sesame Street character, but I've always been an Ernie Els fan. Because his last few years have been rough, it's easy to forget the place Ernie had in the game just a few years back. Let's reminisce.

When Ernie came up in the early 90's, a lot of golf writers debated whether it would be Ernie or the other new kid, Phil Mickelson, that would dominate golf for the foreseeable future. Both guys were long, had great short games and could putt. Only Ernie's long game was much more dependable back then, as demonstrated by his US Open title in 1994. It seemed like an easy bet that Ernie would bag at least a six-pack of major trophies at that point, when our hero was only 24.

Over the next few years it looked like Ernie might win a couple of other majors, especially the 1995 PGA which he led by a few going into the final round, but he wasn't able to do it again until the 1997 US Open at Congressional. This one seemed huge. It was the major following Tiger's 12 stroke victory/bitch-slap to the rest of the tour at the '97 Masters and it seemed to represent the Tour's Tina standing up to Ike moment. Ernie's win let everyone know that Tiger wasn't just going to breeze in and take over the sport. No, that wouldn't happen for another two years.

The '97 US Open victory heralded a great rivalry between Ernie and Tiger, only Ernie turned out to be the Boston Red Sox and Tiger turned out to be the Yankees. Tiger went on to pull off the greatest string of tournament victories we've ever seen, and Ernie's played great but just not great enough. In the four majors that Tiger won in a row from 2000-2001, Ernie finished second twice. When Ernie went eagle - birdie - par on the last three holes of the 2000 Mercedes Championship, Tiger went eagle - birdie - birdie to beat him. No matter what Ernie did it was never good enough to beat Tiger.

Even when Tiger wasn't involved, other golfers held Ernie's down. In 2004 Ernie went six under over the last twelve holes at Augusta in the final round, led the tournament by three shots with five to play, yet somehow Phil Mickleson went nuts and took the title with a bunch of late birdies. Later that year Ernie stared down journeyman Todd Hamilton in the British Open playoff and somehow Todd Hamilton beat Ernie by hitting a thirty yard chip with a hybrid club to two feet on the final playoff hole.

Sure, Ernie won the 2003 British, but I guarantee you Ernie isn't satisfied with that number, and he's been on a steady decline since Summer 2005 when he injured his knee. And at 37, Ernie doesn't have time on his side any more.

Ernie, like a lot of great golfers who had the unfortunate luck of peaking at the same time Tiger did, can't help but look at the past (or Tiger's emergence) with regret. That being said, Ernie rarely backed down from Tiger like a lot of other guys did; he was just repeatedly outclassed. Looking forward, he's one of the few guys on tour that has the talent to haul in 5+ majors over the next ten years. The question at this point is whether he has the confidence to do so.

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I Miss Ernie

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