Ernie Els confident to make it to the Masters with a victory in the upcoming events – Golf News
The South African veteran golfer, Ernie Els, expressed his disappointment and frustration over the final day performance in the Transitions Championship that caused him to fall from the top position to the fifth place in the tournament.
Els, who is also known as ‘Big Easy’, had a 70-hole lead with a one-stroke margin over his competitors.
However, two back-to-back bogeys on the final two holes devastated his overall performance in the tournament to throw him back on the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, four players, Sang-Moon Bae, Robert Garrigus, Jim Furyk and Luke Donald, surpassed him and they all finished tied on the first place to force the game into playoffs.
Thereafter, Donald came out of the field as victorious with a birdie on the first extra hole.
"It still hurts the way I finished the tournament, but I know in my heart how well I played all week," wrote Els in a blog for PGATour.com.
According to Els, it was his best performance so far on the Tour since 2010 and, therefore, he is happy to get back into his best form.
It was not only the fifth-place finish that made him feel sad. In fact, it was a place in the Masters Tournament that meant more to him than the celebrations of a victory.
Had he won the tournament, he would have automatically qualified for the first major event of the year.
He currently ranks 62nd in the Official World Golf Rankings and he needs to be listed among the top-50 players in order to get a ticket to play at Augusta National.
Therefore, his only chance to book his place in the tournament is to record a victory in the two upcoming events that he is scheduled to play before the Masters starts in April.
"I'll go into both of those tournaments knowing my game is pretty much right where I need it to be in order to compete and get in the mix again," Els said with confidence.
The two tournaments include this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and next week’s Shell Houston Open.
Tags: