Golf Central

The South Africans may be running out of patience with one of their favourite native sons, Ernie Els.

Mike Willis, a columnist for South Africa's biggest news organisation Independent News & Media, wrote recently in a story headlined "Why Ernie Will Never Be Better Than Tiger" that Els' career arc was beginning, disappointingly, to resemble that of Greg Norman - another formidable talent who never quite reached the peaks.

Willis congratulates the Big Easy for his three majors, but then harps on the failures - nine seconds and thirds in majors - and suggests that Els, like Norman, may be spending too much time on outside interests rather than his golf.

Wow. It's not the nicest thing to say about a genuinely nice sportsman who is one of South Africa's great representatives. "They earn their millions on the back of our emotional engagement ... if they dash us onto the rocks too often, we turn sour."

Willis concludes by saying: "Revealingly, Tiger's website is focused entirely on golf. No chardonnay's or cabernet's for him."

By the way, Mike, chardonnays and cabernets do not require apostrophes. But anyway, we're hoping for Els to win another big one this year and stick it right back in his critics' pockets.

For the full story, visit our friends at Cape Town's Saturday Argus.