{"id":12679,"date":"2012-07-23T13:19:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T11:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/golf-els-goes-from-absolute-fool-to-major-champion\/"},"modified":"2012-07-23T13:19:28","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T11:19:28","slug":"golf-els-goes-from-absolute-fool-to-major-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-els-goes-from-absolute-fool-to-major-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Els goes from "absolute fool" to major champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Osmond<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 23<\/span> (Reuters) – Just four
\nmonths after looking like an “absolute fool” in his own words
\nwith no confidence in his putting, Ernie Els sank a 15-footer
\nfor birdie on the final green that won him the British Open on
\nSunday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The 42-year-old South African completed a final-round 68 at
\nLytham to win the Claret Jug by one shot after Australian Adam
\nScott bogeyed the last four holes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Obviously, in March I looked like an absolute fool,” Els
\ntold reporters. “People were laughing at me and making jokes
\nabout me and really hitting me low, saying I’m done and I should
\nhang it up.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you’ve been where I was, you have no confidence in
\nputting, you don’t want to have that one coming back. I was
\ncoasting everything up to the hole and wasn’t giving the hole a
\nscare.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Els has completely changed his approach on the
\ngreens.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It comes from retraining your whole outlook on putting,” he
\nsaid. “I just changed the whole thing, mindset, training,
\neverything. And I was really going from a totally different
\nangle, which I liked, because I tried everything else.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Els, 1994 and 1997 U.S. Open champion and British Open
\nwinner at Muirfield 10 years ago, said he had not seriously
\nconsidered quitting the game.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s easier said than done, isn’t it?,” he said. “This
\ngame is a tough game we play. It’s a physical game. It’s a
\nmental game.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Osmond LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 23 (Reuters) – Just four months after looking like an “absolute fool” in his own words with no confidence in his putting, Ernie Els sank a 15-footer for birdie on the final green that won him the British Open on Sunday. The 42-year-old South African completed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}