Els breaks silence on U.S. Open conditions
After shooting 80 in the final round of the U.S. Open, Ernie Els left without speaking to anyone. Until now.
Updated: July 13, 2004, 5:23 PM ET
By Bob Harig | Special to ESPN.com
TROON, Scotland -- If the pain lingers, he does not show it. Ernie Els has moved on. A major championship awaits, another opportunity for the man who wants to judge his career by such events, one he relishes.
The 133rd Open Championship begins Thursday at Royal Troon, where Els got his initial taste of major championship golf as an amateur in 1989. It was the first time he met Jack Nicklaus, the first time he saw players such as Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo.
"It was a dream come true for me," he said.
Els called Shinnecock's final-round setup a "farce."
And he's still not happy about it.
"That was out of control," Els said about the much-discussed final-round course set up at the U.S. Open. "It was really quite unplayable. I went from second to ninth with an 80, and that tells you how ridiculous it was. I'm disappointed at the way it became such a farce."
Els said nothing that day, walking off the course in anger after shooting 80, his highest round ever at a major championship.
Coming just two months after an excruciating loss at the Masters -- where Phil Mickelson birdied five of the last seven holes, including the 18th, to beat him -- it was easy to surmise that Els was simply too crushed to talk.
Major opportunities don't come along that often, after all. And he had seen two slip away, one that was snatched at the last moment, the other the result of a poor final round after he started just two strokes back of eventual winner Retief Goosen.
But to Els, there was nothing to be ashamed of -- unless you're the United States Golf Association.
"I was striking the ball so pure, and my putting was good," said Els, who has two victories on the PGA Tour this year and another on the PGA European Tour. "Everything was really falling into place so nicely. But I could see Saturday afternoon, I could see the golf course going. And we had that wind blowing, and then the next morning it was just gone."
USGA officials have since admitted that, perhaps, they went too far. Water should have been applied to the greens that morning, they said. The fact that 28 players shot in the 80s and nobody broke par spoke to the difficulty of the course.
Yet in an interview two weeks ago at the U.S. Women's Open, Tom Meeks, the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions, said that while the course conditions may have been severe, two excellent players in Goosen and Mickelson emerged.
"I think a lot of golfers lost their patience and gave up early in the round," Meeks told the Boston Globe. "I really think Ernie Els gave up after the first hole. He double bogeyed it. It's like he gave up, and that's not like him."
Els, who has spent the last several weeks in Europe and played in last weekend's Scottish Open, had not heard those words.
Until Tuesday.
"I'd like to meet the guy who said that," Els said. "How do you give up? "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. I've never given up on any round of golf in my life. If I did give up, I would have shot 100. That's ridiculous.
"You know what, they have got no idea. They've lost the plot in the story. To take one of the best golf courses in this entire world and to make it a farce like that. . . they've got egg on their face."
And this, remember, is a two-time U.S. Open champion.
He could have overtaken Tiger Woods for No. 1 in the world that day. He could have joined a select group of three-time Open winners. He could have captured his fourth major championship in an era when, other than Woods, there is no player under 45 with more than two.
Els continues to tip his cap to Mickelson for a job well done at the Masters. He has a harder time doing so for countryman Goosen, although he admires the U.S. Open champion's game and counts him among the best in the world.
Yet if it weren't for the inquisitions, Els said, there would be no reason to dwell on the close calls.
"One day when I'm done, I'm going to look back and say well, what could I have done there this day," Els said. "But right now I'm in the running. I'm playing my golf, I'm in the middle of my career, and I feel good about it. I've won quite a few tournaments around the world and you've just got to keep going. I can't start thinking about how disappointed I must be when I'm not winning tournaments. You just try and give yourself a chance."
It's not hard to picture Els with a chance again on Sunday.
Bob Harig covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at harig@sptimes.com.
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