The Big Easy - Laid-back Ernie Els on winning, losing and why golf should be more like rugby - Els comments on his disappointing game, but anticipates a comeback - Interview

Golf Digest, Feb, 2000

I want to be able to tell you afterward, over a beer, that I think you were wrong to whip up the bloody crowd. Or tell you that you were wrong to walk on my line. Instead of shying away from that and telling my teammates, I should be able to say, "Listen man, I think you were full of s--- doing that. But well played."

You, along with the late Payne Stewart, have the best U.S. Open records of anyone over the last 10 years. Why is that?

I remember him saying to me before Pinehurst, "I'm not one of the best ball-strikers, but I can chip and putt and play under pressure. And I know how to play these courses." I'm the same way. At my best I can hit it as well as Nick Price, but week in and week out I don't. I miss fairways. I miss greens. But I get it around.

Temperament is part of it, too. Payne never really got too angry on the course. He was more flamboyant and more of a showman than I, but he was very focused on the course, very quiet. He never got ahead of himself.

Did the accident make you think about your lifestyle?

Yes. That could have happened to any of us. There were quite a few players in the air. Liezl picked me up from my back doctor at about 1:30. She was full of tears. We weren't sure then who was on the plane. We thought it could have been Lee Janzen or Stuart Appleby. Scott Hoch. But it could have been me or anyone. There are about 30 of us who have the same kind of deal on those planes. They make it so much easier for us. We can go home on Sunday evenings. Go to the tournaments on Tuesdays. It all means more time at home. But we have to travel. This is what we do. You have to live your life.

Your first U.S. Open title came at Oakmont [1994], yet you almost didn't qualify. Can you tell that story?

I need to thank Lee Janzen. The year before at Baltusrol, the USGA gave me an exemption. I was very nervous and shot 144 for 36 holes. Lee had a putt on the last green on Friday to put me out through the 10-shot rule. He missed and I played well on the weekend and finished seventh. That's how I got into the next one.

The week before Oakmont I was at the Buick Classic and lost to Lee by a couple of shots. So I arrived confident. I enjoyed the course right away.

Do you still send a Christmas card to Trey Holland [the USGA rules official who mistakenly gave Els relief from a temporary but movable obstruction, a TV camera crane, on the 10th hole of the final round]?

[Laughs]. No, I never have. I see him every year at the Masters. He's a rules official there. He's always on the 12th. Just as I go over the bridge, he's there. He smiles at me and I smile at him. And we both know what we're smiling about. It was a huge break for me. I still made a bogey, but it could have been a double or even more. I was in grass up to my waist.

The golf in the Monday playoff, especially at the start, was awful.

Horrendous. Just horrendous. None of us had a lot of experience at that stage. Colin maybe the most. It was only my second U.S. Open, and at that stage Loren Roberts hadn't won a tournament.