Ernie Els will measure his progress in PGA Tour events against Tiger Woods

You should have said El's folded against Woods in the Dubai playoff, just like he always does. I wonder if El's regrets playing in the same era as Tiger, just think how many more majors and titles he could have accumulated without him in the picture. Ernie seems like a nice enough fellow, but he has been underachieving for years, based on his talent level. He is no more a threat to "Urkel's" golf supremacay then you are to winning a pulitzer.

Wiilllssoonnnnnn! Oops, wrong story.

I watched the Dubai tourney and that wasn't a fold. A bad tee shot, yes. On the dogleg par 5 playoff hole, they had to hit a long draw off the tee to keep it in the fairway. Els overcooked it left into a sandy area between the plam trees. (On the same hole in regulation play he hit a great tee shot and made a clutch birdie with an 8-footer). Tiger was able to put his tee ball in the center of the fairway, just 220 yards from the pin. Because of the situation, Els was forced to try an extremely difficult shot (230 yard hook off a marginal lie in the waste area) that wound up a couple of feet short of very good, but in the water. Game, set & match.

It certainly wasn't a fold on that playoff hole.
If Ernie's shot had gone a couple of feet longer, he would have been favourite for that hole and thus the tournament.
Golf tournaments are often won by such margins. That means very little for the rest of the season.

As I've stated many times, people make too much out of winning & how winning suddenly makes someone better. A few weeks ago, Monty won only because the man leading hit a double bogey on the last hole to hand Monty a one shot victory. Does this make Monty a great winner? Nope.
Winning often has a big element of luck and particularly often has luck on playoff holes.

Els has plenty of titles in him this season. I just hope at least one of them is in a major.

Padraig Harrington deserves a mention too. He has just had his traditional 10 week Christmas layoff, and is in Malaysia this weekend. Expect big things form him also, although maybe not just yet.

Els and Harrington for majors.

Norman, Monty is a great winner. And yes, Els did fold. How can you dispute this? Winning a playoff hole with a par means that the other guy folded.

Oh, and if you don't mind me asking, Norman, what is your surname? I saw you mention in another post that you played on the European Tour for a while. (You don't have to answer my question if you don't want to, of course.

:)

David,
Monty is indeed a great winner. What I was saying is, that particular win did nothing to show this.
All he did was pick up the scraps.

Many wins are like this, and there is often a 2nd place with more personal achievement than Monty's mentioned win. For instance Ernie Els had the Masters taken off him by a great Phil Mickelson finish a couple of years ago. There was no shame for Ernie, just another player on a hot streak.

Of course, I'd take a scrappy win, handed to me by a faultering player, ahead of a gallant 2nd place finish.

I'm just saying that a 2nd place finish doesn't necessarily mean that a player folds.

In the case of Dubai, Els had to actually make a birdie in the first place in regulation play to get him a possible win.
As it turned out Tiger equalled his score. Suppose Tiger had parred the final hole in regulation. Would this have suddenly made Ernie Els a great winner. I don't think so.

Apart from Tiger, Ernie has been one of the very best pressure players in the last few years. One bogey doesn't change that.

Oh, and I'm not giving my surname because I'll be winning The Open (British Open) this year. Just a small tiny little matter of qualifying first.

Norman, are you a pro?

Yes David, I'm a pro, but not a top class one. That's why I find it very strange when people have digs at guys who are doing so well in such a difficult business. Most of us would absolutely love to have Ernie's talent and composure.
Although I don't know Ernie Els on a personal level, I do know guys who do, and I've yet to hear anything bad said about him. There are very few golfers I could say that about.

What tour do you play on?

"Comment from: David [Visitor]
What tour do you play on?"

Well his first name is, Greg right?

ROTFLMAO

Norman said he played a bit on the European tour but found it very tough. He also played on Europes nationwide tour I think.

He also said he was nearly recovered from injury.
Maybe that's why he doesn't seem to have been blogging as much here in the last while.

Question for Norman: how many guys in the world top 20 have you met?

Johnny N,
Of the top 20 list, I'd say 13, just glancing through it.
But if you mean met properly as in had a conversation with, it would be just some of the British & Irish guys really.

As regards the injury, you could make that a plural. But yes I'm pretty much physically better but not match fit yet. I am practicing hard though.

One-Putt,
good one!

David,
the european tour, but not with very good exempt status, so I play lower levels too. That could change this season though!

Good luck Norman!

With regards to wilson's comment about Ernie underachieving for years; I think its true. If you compare it to a guy like Goosen who took along time to actually do anything, he has always been a much harder worker than Els and thats why he is a currently better than him. Forget injury excuses eg. He has been one up on Ernie for a couple of years now.

Wow, incredible blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is excellent, let alone the content!