(1969-10-17) 17 October 1969 (age 54) Johannesburg, South Africa
Height
6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight
210 lb (95 kg; 15 st)
Sporting nationality
South Africa
Residence
Wentworth, Surrey, England George, Western Cape, South Africa Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Spouse
Liezl
(m. 1998)
Children
2
Career
Turned professional
1989
Current tour(s)
PGA Tour Champions European Senior Tour
Former tour(s)
PGA Tour European Tour Sunshine Tour
Professional wins
75
Highest ranking
1 (22 June 1997)[1] (9 weeks)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour
19
European Tour
28 (7th all-time)
Japan Golf Tour
1
Asian Tour
3
Sunshine Tour
16 (9th all time)
PGA Tour of Australasia
5
PGA Tour Champions
3
Other
21
Best results in major championships (wins: 4)
Masters Tournament
2nd: 2000, 2004
PGA Championship
3rd/T3: 1995, 2007
U.S. Open
Won: 1994, 1997
The Open Championship
Won: 2002, 2012
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame
2011 (member page)
Southern Africa Tour Order of Merit winner
1991–92, 1994–95
European Tour Golfer of the Year
1994, 2002, 2003
PGA Tour Rookie of the Year
1994
European Tour Order of Merit winner
2003, 2004
Payne Stewart Award
2015
Old Tom Morris Award
2018
Theodore Ernest Els (/ˈɛls/; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former World No. 1, he is nicknamed "The Big Easy" due to his physical stature along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victories are four major championships: the U.S. Open in 1994 at Oakmont and in 1997 at Congressional, and The Open Championship in 2002 at Muirfield and in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.[2] He is one of six golfers to twice win both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship.
Other highlights in Els's career include topping the 2003 and 2004 European Tour Order of Merit (money list), and winning the World Match Play Championship a record seven times. He was the leading career money winner on the European Tour until overtaken by Lee Westwood in 2011, and was the first member of the tour to earn over €25,000,000 from European Tour events. He has held the number one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking and until 2013 held the record for weeks ranked in the top ten with 788.[3][4] Els rose to fifteenth in the world rankings after winning the 2012 Open Championship. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2010, on his first time on the ballot, and was inducted in May 2011.[5]
Els now primarily plays on the PGA Tour Champions.
^"Week 25 1997 Ending 22 Jun 1997" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
^"PGA Tour Media Guide – Ernie Els". PGA Tour. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
^"Players who have reached the Top Ten in the Official World Golf Ranking since 1986". European Tour Official Guide 09 (38th ed.). PGA European Tour. 2009. p. 558. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
^"Week 11 – Ernie Els Wins WGC-CA Championship To Jump To World Number Eight While The Puerto Rico Open Goes to a Monday Finish". Official World Golf Ranking. 15 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
^"2011 Hall of Fame class: Els, Ford, Bush, Hutchison". PGA Tour. 22 September 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
website ErnieEls at the PGA Tour official site ErnieEls at the European Tour official site ErnieEls at the Sunshine Tour official site ErnieEls at the...
ErnieEls. From Herolds Bay in the southern Cape, Els graduated in Human Biology from Stanford University. In 2013, she acted as her father ErnieEls'...
in the Masters with an 18-foot (5.5 m) birdie putt on the final hole. ErnieEls was the runner-up at a stroke back; the two played in different pairs...
15 strokes ErnieEls, Miguel Ángel Jiménez 2000 The Open Championship 6 shot lead −19 (67-66-67-69=269) 8 strokes Thomas Bjørn, ErnieEls 2000 PGA Championship...
which attracted criticism from some golfers, including Tiger Woods and ErnieEls, and in the media outside the United States. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim...
Georgia. Vijay Singh won his only Masters, three strokes ahead of runner-up ErnieEls. It was the second of Singh's three major titles. Each player is classified...
Stewart† 1992 Tom Kite 1993 Lee Janzen 1994 ErnieEls† 1995 Corey Pavin 1996 Steve Jones 1997 ErnieEls 1998 Lee Janzen 1999 Payne Stewart 2000‡ Tiger...
membership, of the tour by playing just four other events. Players such as ErnieEls and Retief Goosen have taken advantage of this to play the PGA and European...
Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England. ErnieEls won his second Claret Jug, one stroke ahead of runner-up Adam Scott. Tiger...
this up by winning The Masters in 2000, with a three-stroke victory over ErnieEls. Singh did not win on the PGA Tour in 2001, but finished the year with...
championship with a birdie on the final hole to win by one stroke over runner-up ErnieEls. The purse was $6.0 million and the winner's share was $1.17 million....
2008 and 2009. He has spent 906 weeks ranked in the top-10, and overtook ErnieEls as the golfer with the most weeks ranked in the top 10 in 2013. This list...
Leonard. ErnieEls won in a playoff against Thomas Levet, Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby. Todd Hamilton won in a playoff against ErnieEls. Pádraig...
fourth major title, eight strokes ahead of runners-up Thomas Bjørn and ErnieEls. With the victory, Woods became the fifth golfer and also youngest ever...
Northumberland Challenge. He won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1997 and 1998 with ErnieEls and David Frost. Goosen played in the 2000 Presidents Cup where the U...
to 21 July at Muirfield Golf Links in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. ErnieEls won his first Claret Jug and third major title in a playoff over Stuart...
Stewart† 1992 Tom Kite 1993 Lee Janzen 1994 ErnieEls† 1995 Corey Pavin 1996 Steve Jones 1997 ErnieEls 1998 Lee Janzen 1999 Payne Stewart 2000‡ Tiger...
Todd Hamilton won his only major championship, defeating 2002 champion ErnieEls by a stroke in a four-hole playoff. Phil Mickelson finished third, followed...
two holes for his first ever PGA Tour victory. He wins by one shot over ErnieEls. 2010: Jim Furyk defeats Brian Davis in a sudden death playoff. On the...
total to three wins. Other multiple winners in this era are South African ErnieEls (2002, 2012) and Irishman Pádraig Harrington (2007, 2008). In 2009, 59-year-old...
for the first time on the PGA Tour in his 164th start when he defeated ErnieEls on the second hole of a sudden death playoff. He entered the final round...
name), a feminine given name short for Elisabeth ErnieEls (born 1969), South African golfer Jurie Els, South African singer Electrophoretic light scattering...
Global Information
South Africa