What an ending to the US Open! It was no surprise to learn that FOX Sports’ viewing figures peaked at over 11 million as the tournament came to a dramatic conclusion.
It really could have gone so many different ways with four or five guys having a chance to win or take it to a Monday playoff. In the end, Jordan persevered to win and you have to say he played some magnificent shots under pressure down the stretch. As I said after the Masters, he is a great young role model for the game and has a great attitude. At the same time you have to feel for Dustin but I am confident he will bounce back; he played great golf all week and obviously has the game to win Majors.
As a proud South African I was delighted to see three South Africans in the top-10. Both Louis and Branden are former members of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation so it is with immense pride that I see them competing like they did for a Major. Of course, Louis already has a Major under his belt, as does Charl who is a good friend and a true competitor who never gives up. With the Foundation we wanted to give kids an opportunity in golf – and in life – through education and it is great to see them seizing it. I hope it continues to inspire the current and former members to go on and achieve their own personal dreams.
For me, I slipped back over the weekend and didn’t have the result I was looking for. I felt I was in a good position on Friday afternoon, with the course getting harder and harder and 2-over par moving up the leaderboard. Unfortunately, Saturday was not the direction I wanted to be going on moving day. Sunday was a mix of birdies with some inevitable bogeys – however, the eagle on the driveable par-4 16th was a bright spot!
Off the golf course, last week marked the start of a new relationship as brand ambassador for Pacific Links International, a company that provides member access to more than 100 quality golf clubs by some of the game’s greatest designers. It’s an exciting partnership, one that also gives Ernie Els Design a fantastic opportunity to design a great new golf course in Beijing. Given their reputation and expertise in the golf course business, I’ll be proud to display the Pacific Links logo on my clothing and represent them as I travel and compete around the world.
On a different topic another of my sponsors, RBC, has announced a repeat of last year’s successful and very generous #RBCGolf4Kids campaign, which raised so much money for charity. You may well recall it, with all of RBC’s golfing ambassadors tweeting about it and competing against each other. The format is different to last year and it will run for five weeks. There is a pot of up to $500,000 that will be split between the designated charities of the 15 RBC golfing ambassadors taking part. We’re all going to have some fun with this. There are competitions, prize giveaways and even ‘photo throwbacks’ that will show some of your favourite golfers in a whole new light. The photo we’ve chosen from my past is not to be missed, trust me!
You can learn more on the website but the key thing is that each player’s success is determined by the number of Tweets and Retweets of the hashtag #RBCGolf4Kids. In our case, that applies to both @TheBig_Easy and @ElsForAutism. Do please join in; you’ll be raising money for young people who really need our help and support. Thank you on behalf of everyone at the Els for Autism Foundation.
Okay, so moving on to this week’s Travelers Championship, where I’ll be teeing it up for the first time since finishing tied-10th in 2002. It was a different headline sponsor then, but the golf course is the same, TPC River Highlands just outside Hartford in Connecticut. The memories of 2002 are still pretty clear – I enjoyed the golf course and enjoyed even more shooting a 64 in the final round! A few weeks later I went on and won the Open Championship at Muirfield, so it would be great if this year’s Travelers had a similar effect and helped generate a bit of a spark in my game. That’s all that is missing at the moment. Let’s see how we go.
