Ernie hopes to start renaissance in Open

Ernie Els (right) says he is going to be working hard in the off-season to be fully-prepared for the SA Open at Glendower Golf Club starting on January 11.

The 48-year-old will be hoping to make his first cut in the event since missing weekend play in 2016 and 2017.

Writing on his website Els said: “It’s been a disappointing year results-wise so I’ll be working hard over the off-season to try to give myself the best chance of making a strong start to 2018.

“My next tournament will be the SA Open, where I’m on hosting duty as well as playing. That is always a very special week. There’ll be opportunities for me to tell you more about that nearer the time.

“The pattern of me playing better than I scored, which has been the story for much of the last 18 months, continued in my last two events of 2017, the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico and the RSM Classic at the beautiful Sea Island Resort in Georgia.

“For now, I want to turn attention to some of my off-course endeavours because we’ve had a run of good news stories in recent weeks.

“I have a really great team of people around me, which is obviously one of the keys to success in any business, so it’s nice for me to be able to give them a bit of a shout-out here and publicly congratulate them on their efforts.” – ANA