While the world's golfing elite can be forgiven for wishing Tiger Woods
had never taken up the game, South Africa's Ernie Els has special reason
to curse the American's domination of the sport.
Els, who finished tied for second alongside Thomas Bjorn some eight
shots behind Woods at St Andrews, has now finished runner-up in all three
of the Majors this season.
The affable 30-year-old, dubbed the Big Easy for his laid-back
approach, finished three shots behind Vijay Singh in the Masters at
Augusta in April and was 15 shots in arrears behind the Tiger at Pebble
Beach at the US Open.
"I guess I could have played as good as I can this week, but I
wasn't going to win," said the two-time US Open champion, who'd joked
after the first round that there ought to be an inquiry if Woods beat him
by 15 shots in the Open.
"Even if I had really played as good as I could I don't think I
would have got to 19 under like Tiger so you have to give credit to
him."
Els, now second in all the majors this year. Allsport.
"When you are in a position like I was today I had to keep
that level of play up the whole day the way I started the first five
holes.
"You try and push yourself harder and harder and you start pushing
to hard before you start trying too hard and I think that was my case
today.
Els said he was privileged to be playing in the same generation as
Woods and he felt he could draw from his experiences this week.
"We just try too hard instead of playing it and enjoying it like
Tiger, but we don't all have his ability so it is tough at times."
