Ernie Els is reunited with Claret Jug after a decade

Monday 23 July 2012

ERNIE ELS had words of praise for Nelson Mandela and words of comfort for a devastated opponent as he reflected last night on a dramatic victory at the 141st Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

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Nick Rodger and Hugh MacDonald

The 42-year-old South African won his second Open Championship – 10 years after lifting his first at Muirfield – when he shot a 68, coming from six shots behind on the day to beat Adam Scott of Australia who carded a 75.

The 32-year-old from Adelaide had come into the final day of the Open leading by four shots from Graeme McDowell and was ahead by that margin from Els with four holes to play. Scott bogeyed the last four holes to lose by one shot, giving Els his fourth major."Amazing. I'm still numb. It still hasn't set in. It will probably take quite a few days because I haven't been in this position for 10 years, obviously, so it's just crazy, crazy, crazy getting here," said Els. "But I really feel for my buddy, Scottie, I really do. I've blown majors before and tournaments before, and I just hope he doesn't take it as hard as I did," added Els, who has finished second in the Open three times and twice in the Masters.He believed, though, that Scott's positive personality would help the Australian recover from a devastating finish to the Open where he shed strokes on four holes with a mixture of poor putting and errant shots. "I've been on the other end more times than I've actually been on the winning end," said Els. "And it's not a good feeling."The South African said he had punished himself emotionally when finishing just short but said: "I think Adam is a little bit different than I am. I did see him afterwards in the scorer's hut and he seemed okay."I said to him: 'I'm sorry how things turned out'. I told him that I've been there many times and you've just got to bounce back quickly. Don't let this thing linger."So, yeah, I feel for him. But thankfully he's young enough. He's 32 years old. He's got the next 10 years that he can win more than I've won. I've won four now. I think he can win more than that."In accepting the claret jug in front of a cheering crowd, Els immediately paid tribute to Mandela, the former president of South Africa, who celebrated his 94th birthday last week.Els, a child of apartheid, said of Mandela: "He's been such a great influence in our country. We have been truly blessed to have a man like President Mandela take us through a very difficult time in our country. And everybody now can see the success of the country and it's only because of President Mandela."The four-time major winner later said he would love to take the claret jug to South Africa and invite Mandela to have a drink from it.The politician, he said, had been an inspiration for him."Believe it or not, this morning I was lying watching cricket and I was just kind of daydreaming, and this thought came through me in a split second. If I win, I told myself, I'd better thank President Mandela because I grew up in the era of the apartheid era, and then changing into the democratic era, and President Mandela was right there. And right after the change, I was the first one to win a major."He added: "So in a way we intertwined together in a crazy way. And I just felt he's been so important for us being where we are today as a nation and as sports people."Els said he would go "wherever he is" to meet Mandela again and toast the Open victory.Scott had to face the press barely 30 minutes after he had missed a short putt to force a play-off. His game disintegrated over the last four holes as he putted poorly, executed a poor second shot at 17 and hit a 3-wood into the bunker from the tee at the 18th.He admitted the finish had been "sloppy" but refused to blame nerves. "I was surprisingly calm the whole round," he said. "I probably spent all my nerves in the 24 hours leading up to playing today."However, his execution of shot and decision-making were both poor on the final stretch after he looked to have put himself in an unassailable position. "It hasn't sunk in yet," he said of the events of a dramatic afternoon. "But I am a positive guy and I want to take all the good stuff that I did this week and use that for the next time I am out on the course."

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Ernie Els is reunited with Claret Jug after a decade

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