Ernie Els cracked the pot to win the PGA Grand Slam
What was that? Ernie Els won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf on Wednesday at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda.
The fans were shocked, the media was amazed and the golf fraternity was taken aback, when the results on the leader board were flashed in front of them. The 41-year-old South African surged to victory with the help of one stroke. He was chased by the American
David Toms.
The former World number one took charge of the course when he was trailing behind with three strokes. Before wrapping up the round, Els fired three consecutive birdies on the closing holes of the back nine and became the Champion of Champions.
Mr. Big Easy holds a record of 18 PGA tour victories, 25 European Tour victories, 15 Sunshine Tour victories and one on the Japan Tour. He is a two time winner of the US Open and possesses one Open Championship victory in his belt. In 2010, he won the Arnold
Palmer Invitational and the WGC-CA Championship.
Els, who was a replacement for the Masters champion Phil Mickelson, wrapped the 36-hole tournament with a 2-under 69 and banked $600,000. This is the second time the champion has seized the title. Earlier, a similar story was repeated in 1997 at Poipu Bay
where Ernie played next to Tiger Woods.
Toms, another replacement for the British Open champion, Louis Oosthuizen, emerged from behind and fired a birdie at the 12th to expand his victory zone by three shots when Els missed a shot at the 13th. To respond, Toms, the former grand slam
winner drafted the first pair of birdies on the 14th, but Toms did not let him enjoy the lead and instantly chipped the next hole to finish on par.
Speaking to the press, Ernie disclosed his experience and said, "When a guy does it once, you're thinking, 'Good shot.' When he does it twice in three holes, you're thinking maybe he's destined to win this thing, it took a bit of the pressure off me in a
way, where I free wheeled it, tried to see how close I could get to him".
An interesting change came on the next hole, when the South African shot a birdie and the American missed a shot to take a share in the lead. Here onwards there was no stopping Els’s victory. He shot one birdie after the other to give himself an edge of
one stroke.
The crowd applauded on the 17th hole, when Els drafted a 10-foot par putt. It became evident that the new champion was close to his crowning moment. Even Els was surprised at his last birdie as he had not made one like that in a while.
43-year-old Davis Toms banked $300,000 prize money. The last time he banked some serious money was in 2006, when he won the Sony Open in Hawaii. The American was proud for his second spot finish. He said, "I felt like I didn't necessarily lose this thing,
I'd say he won the tournament. For me to go through those holes, play them under par, would have been a pretty good feat in itself. He played them 3-under".
Pebbles Beach champion Graeme McDowell shot a score of one-over-par to take the third position, while, Martin Kaymer jumped from below to take a share in the third spot. Both the Ryder Cup champs made a grand sum of $225,000 on the grand slam of PGA.
The US PGA winner was the betting favourite for everyone, but with so much on his mind regarding the number one title, Kaymer could not muster up the desired level of energy.
Ernie Els, who hails from South Africa has won the PGA Grand Slam of 2010. He is the new Champion of Champions. The two time grand slam winner will be making his way to the Million Dollars in Africa, where he has not been in a while.
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