A big victory for Big Easy
The pressure to win made Ernie Els feel like he was in a major. Given all he has been through this year, his victory in the American Express Championship sure felt like one.
Emotionally spent from a Grand Slam season of heartache, Els reasserted himself as a major force Sunday by outlasting Thomas Bjorn in a brilliantly played duel in the cold rain at Mount Juliet. He closed with a 3-under 69 for a one-shot victory and his first World Golf Championship in Thomastown, Ireland.
“Everybody knows what I’ve been through this summer,” Els said. “I had a lot of pressure on me, and I think I showed that I didn’t want to lose.”
The Big Easy had every reason to feel sorry for himself.
He lost the Masters when Phil Mickelson birdied the last hole. He played in the final group of the U.S. Open and shot 80. He lost the British Open in a four-hole playoff against unheralded Todd Hamilton. And a bogey on the final hole knocked him out of a playoff at the PGA Championship.
“I wanted to forget about the majors, the near misses,” Els said. “I needed to get that out of my system and start over. Otherwise, I’m going to get left behind. I don’t want to do that. I want to win tournaments, and the only way you can do it is to move forward.”
Els took one small leap with his fourth victory of the year.
He moved past Tiger Woods to No. 2 in the world ranking, and the 34-year-old South African now has yet another chance to reach No. 1 by the end of the year.
Els and Vijay Singh, who did not play this week because of the latest hurricane in Florida, are scheduled to play the next two tournaments in Europe.
“The game is on,” Els said.
The game at Mount Juliet was on from the opening hole, and never let up until Bjorn failed to make a 40-foot birdie putt on the final hole. That allowed Els to two-putt for bogey from 15 feet to finish at 18-under 270.
Els won $1.2 million and set the single-season earnings record on the European tour, topping $4 million.
The majors over, this was a consolation prize.
Bjorn might have felt the same way in defeat. Four months ago in Ireland, the 33-year-old Dane walked off the course during the opening round at the European Open and said he was mentally unfit to play, his confidence so low that even the largest greens looked like the tiniest of targets.
He gave Els all he could handle in the bone-chilling rain, shooting a 68 and staying within one shot most of the day.
“This is a massive step in the right direction,” Bjorn said. “This is a sign for me that, yeah, I can play with the big boys again. I came up one shot short of Ernie, but I came up a long way ahead of everybody else. And that gives me a good indication of where my golf is going.”
Southern Farm Bureau Classic
Fred Funk birdied the final hole to finish off a final-round 6-under 66 and win the Southern Farm Bureau Classic by a stroke, his first PGA Tour victory in six years.
The 48-year-old U.S. Ryder Cup player tied a course record at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss., with a 22-under 266 to win for the first time since he won here in 1998.
Constellation Energy Classic
Wayne Levi won his second Champions Tour event, shooting a 4-under 68 for a two-stroke victory at the Constellation Energy Classic in Hunt Valley, Md.
Levi finished at 16-under 200 and held off late charges by several players, including Hale Irwin, Rodger Davis and Jim Thorpe.