‘You can wear your opponent down if your short game is really good’
Ernie Els, one of the best match play competitors ever, shares some of the tips and tricks he’s used to win world titles and at the Presidents Cup.
F our-time major winner Ernie Els is a match play maestro. The Big Easy won the World Match Play title a record seven times, and made eight Presidents Cup appearances. He’s currently preparing as captain to pitch his Internationals side against Tiger Woods’ American team in next year’s battle in Melbourne. It should be some match and with the South African’s vast match play know-how, you wouldn’t put it past him to lead his side to glory.
I love match play, especially the 36-hole version, because I always felt I had enough
time whether I was up or down. I had enough holes to get the job done. Match play is a unique challenge and I have a lot of experience in it. Sometimes you’ll be trading birdies and eagles, other times it’s a bit scrappy, but either way there are always key moments where you can seize the momentum or produce a shot at just the right time to apply some pressure.
Tactics-wise, I always try to stay on top of
things from the first hole onwards. It’s so important to get o to a good start and keep the momentum going, build an early authority to show you mean business and dominate the match. Of course, that doesn’t always happen. I found myself down in many matches and came back, but overall my gameplan was to stay on top of it from the very first hole. The best match play advice I can give to club golfers? Well, your overall game has to be there, especially your short putting. There are no gimmes out there so you should be solid with the short putting, which removes a lot of stress. It’s the same with your short game, because you can always mentally wear your opponent down if your short game is really good. Your opponent might be thinking you’re out of a hole, but if you can keep getting up and down it will eventually play on his mind. It’s also important to have an upbeat attitude. If your opponent sees you’re not going to get flustered easily, that’s potentially another significant psychological blow in your favour.
There are several candidates for my
best-ever match play performance, but the one that springs to mind is against Seve in the semi-finals in the 1994 World Match Play. He was on top of his game at the time, but I beat him 2&1 on 17. I think I was 17 under after 35 holes! It was some game. He made seven twos out of the eight par 3s that day to my five… but he only won two holes! Another match that stands out was against Steve Stricker in the 1996 World Match Play. I was six down through 18, but ended up beating him 1-up!
I’m proud of my match play record and my
seven World Match Play titles, while Seve and Gary Player won five each. If you look at those two players they’re both dogged, determined guys – Gary was never out of it while with Seve it was all style and flamboyance. Those two took an awful lot of beating. I didn’t encounter any gamesmanship as such. We pretty much batted straight down the line, though there is always a little bit of gamesmanship owing to the fact that you’re always trying to outmanoeuvre your opponent. It’s a bit like a chess game with some mental issues involved. You might give your opponent threefoot putts for a while and then, all of a sudden, start testing him by asking him to putt out and knocking him slightly o balance. Overall though we didn’t have any major incidents concerning gamesmanship though there is a little bit of it that goes on.