Ernie: class act
I have to get back to the TV compound, but I just wanted to throw up a quick post to congratulate Mr. Theodore Ernest Els and provide a thread for your comments on Adam Scott bogeying the last four holes to lose and Ernie coming from six shots back to capture his second Claret Jug — that clutch putt for birdie on the 72nd hole was pretty bleeping sweet. Who else held their breath as he set up to what turned out to be the difference between an outright victory and playoff?
My heart goes out to Adam, who handled defeat like a true champ and class act, but I’m truly happy for Ernie. It was painful to watch him let two tourneys — the Transitions Championship (where his manager coined my nickname “Jinx” because I showed up on the 16th when Ernie started missing putts) and the Zurich Classic (where Jason Dufner beat him in a playoff) — get away from him earlier this year. Don’t quote me on this, but I bet becoming the 2012 Open Champion Golfer of the Year makes up for those heartbreaks.
A win at Royal Lytham was due for Ernie — as I’ve mentioned, he came close the last two times the Open was held here. In ’96 he tied for second and in ’01 he tied for third. A first place fittingly completed the trifecta.
Congrats, Ernie (and Team Els– his caddie Ricci Roberts and manager Andy Dawson, among others)! As Luke Donald tweeted, the Heinekens will be flowing tonight. No doubt! #insidejokes
(Getty Images/Andrew Redington)
If you can manage it in the next few days, get a phone interview with Dr. Sherylle Calder, Ernie’s new vision guru. It would be fun to hear what they’ve worked on.
Soo happy for Ernie. He’s been putting himself in position for a little while now, and it was finally his time. The key to winning is to keep putting yourself in position. This was Ernie’s weekend to shine.
In golf you nearly always have a bad stretch, unfortunately for Adam he came unglued a little bit at the end, and also made some bad decisions. Like Duffner, Rory and others before him, he’ll learn from this. He just has to keep getting in position.
Invited to the Masters now?
Future storylines: Scott bounces baor win.ck to capture PGA major win. Els wins 2013 Masters. Tells Billy to keep the jacket.
AS pulled a Greg Norman today…
That last putt of AS was so lame, stopped six inches past the hole. Els’ on 18 would have gone four feet by.
Happy for Ernie Els.. he deserves it. Everyone blew up.. seemed like Tiger got the bulk of the criticism ..and he finished 4th. Azinger and Strange killed the dude.
Adam Scott looked weak from the start.. and his swing started to buckle. Great Tournament and universal praise for Ernie.
What a Champion!
There are higher (and frankly unrealistic and not based on past performance) expectations of Tiger. Tiger screws up it doesn’t match with accepted narrative, GMac screws up we forget about it, and continue to talk about him being clutch. The reality is that both have come through before, and not other times, bc that’s reality. Jordan never made every game winning shot, etc. The trick is to give yourself a lot of opportunities. Yes, Tiger has 14 major wins, but he has even more top 5′s that weren’t wins.
Seizing opportunities is a lot more important that giving yourself opportunities. That is the difference between pre and post hydrant Tiger.
Also, with respect to expectations, Tiger has set those for us. He can’t backtrack now. When we find out that McDowell has a poster of Nicklaus in his bedroom that listed the Jack’s achievements, then we will start remembering GMacs failed attempts to get closer to 18 majors.
Uhh, Tiger finished in a tie for 3rd, not 4th.
Yea, Adam has been in position lately a lot at majors. He’s been in the top-15 five of the last 7 majors. So I’m not worried that this is a fluke, that’s when it can really hurt a player. Not guys who are there regularly. Obviously this was his best chance of those 7 though, but still. I mean, even Greg Norman won a couple. And guys seem to be better at bouncing back lately.
I would’ve worried about a guy like Dufner last year, coming out of nowhere basically and suddenly having a major collapse destroy him, but it seemed to have made him stronger. Scott wasn’t out of nowhere on this, he’s established.
I thought that Tiger did really well. He worked his a$$ off to get a result but it just wasn’t happening. At least he gave it his all.
Great win for Ernie, he deserves it after all the near misses. What was Scott doing on the 18th tee. If he was laying up he hit it too far, and if he was trying to hit it over the bunkers he must have miss hit it because he came up way short and rolled into the bunker.
@Mark L: This is what Scott was doing: Q. What clubs did you hit off of 18th tee in the previous three rounds, and did you think about going with less club today?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I thought about going with less club, but it was hard left‑to‑right, and I felt like if I just hit a 3‑wood it would drift. But I just hit a real bullet and it held on its line. I’d hit 3‑wood and some irons the other days, 2‑irons. But I just held it too much on its line. Unfortunately that wasn’t the shot I needed right there.
BTW – Amazing how Luke Donald Disease keeps flaring up – another backdoor high finish and healthy check that will add to all that money he rolls around in.
Big Easy totally deserved this win, congratulations!!! I thought Tiger played really well, the triple bogey was a killer though. My heart sank with Adam, but on the contrary I was relieved Mr. William did not win his 15th majors..
For @Elf and other Tiger lovers out there, yesterday was Exhibit A for why Tiger will not break Jack’s record. Tiger is on his game, no injuries, sitting pretty in position for the weekend, and it doesn’t work out. That is why great players like Ernie and Phil and such have less than 5 major W’s. Unlike most every other sport, your wins/losses are dictated to such a large degree by the actions of others that you have absolutely no control over. Tiger gets 3 more, but that won’t get it done.
@Elf isn’t on this particular blog. She is another blog’s version of this blogs @Shoshana.
thanks, blog overload for me I guess !
lol, BrianS is both right and wrong Elf=Shoshana (I use Elf on Geoffs blog for a variety of reasons), that being said, I have never said Tiger would (or wouldn’t break Jack’s record). I have no clue. I think any prognostications on this subject are silly in the extreme. I deal with what is in front of us (and stats). We have no clue what will happen in the future, and never did.
BIG ERN! Pretty impressive stuff from the Big Easy. I have to admit, I was pretty annoyed that Paul Azinger continued to bring up Els putting stats (75th of 80 some-odd who made the cut), but it was sweet retribution to see Big Ern roll in the clutch putt and finish with a 32 on the back side!
To anyone who has yet to play links golf – do yourself a favor and go over for at least a week. It is the most fun form of the game there is. And you don’t have to play the Open rota courses to find great ones either, although you’d surely want to mix at least one in.
Nice job by Stevie bringing his guy down the stretch. It looked to me like he considered it a done deal on about 13 rather than keep it together and make sure his player brought it home.
It is the curse of dating tennis stars: just look at what happened to Rory, Sergio, Greg Norman, and now Adam after they start dating them…
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WTF?????