Ernie made his Major Championship debut as an amateur in the 1989 Open at Royal Troon, and will tee it up in his 100th career Major at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
On Thursday at 13:45, four-time Major champion Ernie Els (and Phil Mickelson) will make history by joining 12 others as players who have featured in 100 Majors as he tees off alongside Ian Poulter and Hideki Matsuyama.
Els, who won the US Open in 1994 and again in 1997, will be making his 25th appearance at the PGA Championship, a tournament where his best finish came a decade ago when he finished alone in third.
His last Major victory came in 2012, when he lifted the Claret Jug for the second time after first winning The Open in 2002.
The Big Easy is one of seven South Africans in North Carolina this week – Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Brandon Stone, Dylan Frittelli and Richard Sterne all join him in the field at the year’s final Major.
During his 28-year journey to 100 Majors, Els has become one of the game’s greats, and perhaps the very epitome of South African golf in the modern era – big and strong with a free-flowing swing, but, perhaps more importantly, caring, convivial and generous with his time and his resources.
Of course everyone calls him the ‘Big Easy’.
That he went on to win his first major championship when he took the US Open in 1994 as a 24-year-old was no surprise to anyone.
That he took two more majors – one more US Open in 1997 and The Open in 2002 – was impressive in the era of the rise and then dominance of Tiger Woods, the man who irretrievably changed golf.
And then, 10 years after he won The Open, he improbably got his hands on the Claret Jug for a second time, his 2012 victory sealing his place in the lore of golf, whether he wins another major championship or not.
He was denied a career grand slam by the slimmest of margins: A pair of second-place finishes in the Masters was a source of frustration for him, and he has twice come third in the PGA Championship.
Of course, golf is a game of infinite possibilities, as Tom Watson showed when he so nearly won The Open in 2009 at the age of 59. But the reality is Els will find it increasingly difficult to get into the Masters.
He will play longer in the PGA Championship, but who knows how long.
The 100 club:
1. Jack Nicklaus – 164 majors
2. Gary Player – 150 majors
3. Tom Watson – 145 majors
4. Arnold Palmer – 142 majors
5. Raymond Floyd – 127 majors
6. Sam Snead – 119 majors
7. Ben Crenshaw – 118 majors
8. Gene Sarazen – 112 majors
9. Tom Kite – 109 majors
10. Mark O’Meara – 109 majors
11. Bernhard Langer – 104 majors
12. Sir Nick Faldo – 100 majors
*13. Ernie Els – 99 majors
*14. Phil Mickelson – 99 majors
*Will play their 100th Majors at the PGA Championship
