Last week was all about getting some rest and also working on my game to get ready for this week’s WGC – Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral and the run of big events leading up to the Masters.
The only significant engagement was a photo shoot with the guys from Golf Monthly, who flew over from London to share a few hours with me here at the Bear’s Club. You can see the fruits of our labour on this website; just click here for the full story and videos.
Then I started this week by playing in the member-guest day at Seminole with my good friend Johann Rupert. This is a bit of a regular fixture for us and it’s always a lot of fun. Playing this wonderful old Florida golf course is also a nice warm-up for the serious business at Doral, which is one of my favourite stops on the PGA Tour.
It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been playing here since 1994. During those 20 years I feel honored to have won twice, most recently in 2010 (pictured below) and before that in 2001’s Genuity Championship, a week that I’ll always remember as one of the strongest all round performances of my career. To think of all the great champions at Doral, it does feel pretty special to have my name on that list. Of course it would be amazing to make it three wins here.
Ernie claims the trophy at Doral in 2010
Doral has had a few tweaks recently and I’ve heard a lot of good reports. It’ll be interesting to see what they’ve done. I’ve always been a fan of this course; it’s a well-balanced test and I love its straightforward playability. There are holes where you need to fade it, others that require a draw. You’ve got monster par-4s – including 18, which is one of the toughest holes on Tour – and you’ve got short par-4s, along with a nice mixture of par-3s and par-5s. You need to be able to work the ball and have all the shots to score well at Doral.
In other news, we’re in the process of launching the 2014 Els for Autism Golf Challenge. This is our fourth season now and the whole team is really excited…and with good reason, because we’ve got probably our strongest ever line-up of courses on the tournament schedule. It features lots of great courses and several major championship venues, including Baltusrol, Hazeltine and Pinehurst, which is the venue for the men’s and women’s US Opens this year. The fact they’re hosting us in such a busy year for them is indicative of the amazing support they’ve given Els for Autism and we really appreciate it. Of course, we’re so grateful to all of the tournament venues. We literally couldn’t do this without them.
On that note, it’s great to be able to announce that on Monday 10 March we will be breaking ground on site for the new Els Center of Excellence here in Jupiter, Florida. Again, we’ve had amazing support from sponsors, partners, donors and friends, which has got us to this stage, but this is just the beginning. Once complete, the Center will focus on helping individuals on the autism spectrum – locally, nationally and internationally – fulfill their potential to lead positive, productive and rewarding lives. For more information, please visit the website.
Finally just a quick word to everyone at The Els Club Copperleaf, which hosted last week’s Tshwane Open for the second year in succession, and to the champion Ross Fisher. Anyone who follows me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy will have seen me refer to it as being the longest course in European Tour history and Ross really gets it out there off the tee, so I’m not surprised he got along so well at Copperleaf.
Anyway, the team told me it was a great week for the Club, which is located on the exact same piece of land where my grandfather grew up, so you can imagine it’s a design project that means a lot to me personally. Beautiful golf course, too. We’re really proud of that one.
Bye for now.
