Here’s Somethin’ Els

Jon Swift asks Ernie Els: what are your favourite golf courses in South Africa? Els obliges.

When Ernie Els broke through at Oakmont to win the US Open title, the amiable young South African announced to the world that not only was he a great golfer in the making but that he was capable of taking on the toughest courses in the world and coming out on top. But behind the steely determination which saw Els triumph in a three-way play-off is an endearing love affair with the game. For among the layouts Els rates as his favourites in South Africa, there is not one – with the possible exception of Port Elizabeth’s Humewood in a stiff wind and Phalaborwa’s Hans Merensky Club in an enerb’Y-sapping heat wave – that cannot be played and enjoyed year-round by the average golfer. It is also evident from his choice of favourite courses that the intrinsic enjoyment of walking around a piece of sculptured countryside is as important to the young champion as the score at the end of the day. Glendower Country Club is his favourite course. “The layout is beautiful and peaceful and provides a great walk around a bird sanctuary,” explains Els, “but it is also where things really started for me.” It was as a 17 year-old amateur in 1989 that Els first made his mark, finishing second in the South African Open on the lush Glendower layout east of Johannesburg. “Every hole provides a challenge without being impossible to play,” comments Els. “The good shot will be rewarded and the stray shot punished. It’s what a course should be like.” His next choice is perhaps predictable _. his home course, Fancourt Country Club on the Cape Garden Route and close to his holiday home at Herald’s Bay. “A lot of time and thought has gone into the layout of each hole,” says Els. Sentiment also plays a part in the selection Els has next on his list – Houghton Golf Club, the long established layout on the fringe of Johannesburg’s business district. “It really is one of the best layouts in South Africa,” says Eis who won his first South African Open title there in 1992. The layout designed by one of Els’s boyhood idols is next on his list – the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City. “It’s very long even for a big driver of the ball from the back tees,” says Els. “But off the front, it’s a good test and there are some really great holes, like the 9th with its island green. I also like the feeling of being out in Africa. And that’s something anyone can find out quite quickly if you spray a tee shot.” The next choice on the US champion’s list shows the tall young superstar’s lack of bias to a layout where he has not always performed up to his talents – the Country Club in Durban. “Just a beautiful course,” says Els. “Close to Durban, but out on the course, you could be miles from anywhere. It’s a layout you have to think about and it always demands accuracy. But because it’s not all that long, it gives every player who uses his head a better than even chance.” Els’s next choice is one of the most popular and well-used courses in South Africa – Wanderers Golf Club. Like Houghton, Wanderers is within easy reach of the Johannesburg and Sandton business centres and is the venue where he won the South African PGA title for the first time in 1992. “Again, there’s something for every type ofplayer,” says Els. “The layout is open enough to give yourself a chance and the greens true enough for anyone to make the putt if you read it right.” Humewood in Port Elizabeth is next on the list and again a course where Els tasted triumph in 1992, the momentous year on the South African professional circuit where he swept all before him. “Humewood is always a challenge,” he says. “We have so few true links courses in South Africa.

South Africa, The Journal of Trade, Industry and Investment
Publisher, David Altman
Writer, Jon Swift