Getty
?Ernie Els has revealed the agony before the ecstasy of his Open Championship triumph last year ? and admitted he nearly quit golf over his putting woes.
Along with his four Major titles, the Big Easy has built a business empire worth over ?100million and owns homes in Florida, his native South Africa and England, along with an enviable, globetrotting lifestyle.
But ahead of next week's 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield in Scotland, Els, 43, said he has suffered ?brutal? times during his long career.
And this 6ft 3in colossus of a man claimed the public did not appreciate the hurt, pain and sacrifices required to stay at the top of the sport for so long.
?It?s a crazy game,? said the 43-year-old, who has missed the cut at this week's Scottish Open warm-up event. ?My daughter (Sam) wants to go into tennis and I tell her, ?No, you don?t want to go into professional sport.?
?Don?t get me wrong, it?s wonderful in many ways. If I wasn?t a golfer, I would probably be mowing the lawn at Wentworth, but it?s such a sacrifice for the family. I?ve been living outside South Africa more than half my life.
?Even if the rewards are unbelievable, it?s hard to explain to the man in the street that you have to work at it.
?The disappointments are brutal because it?s in the public eye. I?ve been exposed to this with my problems on the greens. If you play it as long as I have, if you?re not touched by every single aspect of the sport, you?re a very lucky man.
?I?ve been touched by most of it, mentally, physically, in front of millions of people. It has been a hell of a ride. If you?re writing a book, don?t write it at 25. Write it at 45.?
Els was haunted by Tiger Woods at the peak of his career, and lost the 2004 Open Championship in a play-off to unknown Todd Hamilton.
And then the loss of his putting touch.
Speaking with searing honesty, he said the soul-searching and despair hit hardest behind the scenes.
?That?s why so many give it up, why there are so many analysts out there,? he explained. ?They have all played the game, they all reached a point where they just said, ?Screw it?.
?Mentally and physically, just the despair of it can get to you and you turn to something else.
?I did get close to saying ?Screw it? with my putting. There?s nothing like going through agony on the greens. So many great players stopped playing because of putting: Peter Alliss, Johnny Miller, Ben Hogan almost stopped. it definitely fluttered through my eardrums.
?Anchored putting has prolonged a lot of careers.?
Plagued by problems on the green, Els missed the cut in three Majors in 2011 and then dropped out the world?s top 50 for the first time since 1993 to miss the Masters last year.
As a long opponent of the belly putter, he took the huge decision to use a technique he called ?legalised cheating?.
His wife Leizl, sitting at a nearby table in the Wentworth clubhouse, explained: ?People don?t realise the agony he went through before going to the long putter.
?People think it was an automatic thing for him to do but it was anything but that. It should have told everyone how badly he was suffering, and how close he got to packing up, because he never wanted to use that putter.
?It was, absolutely, a last resort. It showed how much he loved the game, that he wasn?t ready to give it up.?
Els added: ?It looks like I will be lucky and that it will be time that will stop me, because I have gone through my little battle.?
The South African, who owns a wine company back home, also gave up the booze before Royal Lytham last year but fell ?right off the wagon? celebrating his second Claret Jug.
He admitted he struggled for motivation at the start of this season but he refound his winning touch at the BMW International Open in Munich.
The double US Open winner still wants a career Grand Slam ? ?the Masters would be unbelievable? ? but completing a hat-trick of Opens is his immediate priority.
And if not him, another golden oldie.
?People like Darren (Clarke) and myself use our experience,? he said. ?You need to know how to manoeuvre yourself through the links and I can see it carrying on. Tom Watson almost won it at 59 and Greg Norman was right there one year.
?If you?re on your game, it?s unbelievable how the Open crowd can lift you. That?s what happened to me, I could just feel the crowd over the back nine willing me to do it, whispering: ?Come on?.
?And so I can see these beautiful stories continuing. I am going back to Muirfield for my third time ? some of the field weren?t born the first time I played there (1992).
?Sir Nick Faldo is playing, perhaps even he could do something. You never know. I was 80-1. He will be 1,000-1 so I might have a pound on him. Let?s see, maybe we can push the envelope here and see a Major winner over the age of 50.?
* ERNIE ELS believes Muirfield?s all-male membership policy is ?weird?.
Scotland?s First Minister Alex Salmond is boycotting the Open because the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers refuses to allow female members.
And Els, who won the Open the last time it was staged in East Lothian in 2002, said: ?It is going to be an issue.
?I am not a member there although I am a member at a lot of clubs around the world. I like to think they?re all open ? it?s weird, isn?t it?
?We?ve got presidents, prime ministers who are women, it?s weird. Should the Open be there? I will play wherever, that?s what I do. It?s sport.
?All I can say is that it is weird in this day and age but it is what it is.
?We are sportsmen. If you put a hole down on the M25 we?d go and play. You guys judge, other people judge, we go play. But it is weird.?
When announcing his boycott, SNP leader Salmond said: ?I just think that it is indefensible in the 21st century not to have a golf club that is open to all.
?To have the message that women are not welcome as members, can?t be members and can?t have playing rights over the course on the same basis as men seems to send out entirely the wrong message about the future of golf.?
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/golf/open-2013-ernie-els-defending-2048861
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