Skip to main content

Ernie Els misses six putts on first hole at the Masters, trends on Twitter

Ernie Els of South Africa reacts on the second green during the first round of the 2016 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 7, 2016 in Augusta, Georgia.
Image by: Harry How/Getty Images/AFP

Ernie Els suffered an embarrassing start to his 22nd Masters when he required six putts from a short distance to post a record-high nine on the par-four first hole in Thursday's opening round

  

The four-times major champion and former world number one has struggled with short putts for more than a year, but he felt earlier this season that he had overcome what golfers refer to as the yips.
But his short-putt troubles returned in nightmarish fashion after Els' third shot, a chip, came to rest just shy of three feet from the cup at the opening hole and immediately trended on social networking site Twitter
 
Els struggled to explain exactly what went wrong in his opening round.
"A lot of people have stopped playing the game, it's unexplainable," Els said after carding an eight-over-par 80. "I couldn't get the putter back.
"I was standing there, I've got a three-footer, I've made thousands of three-footers and I just couldn't take it back."
The 46-year-old South African went back and forth missing putts of similar distances. When his effort for double bogey missed left, his playing competitor, world number one Jason Day, turned away.
"It's the first time ever I've seen anything like that," Day said. "I feel for Ernie.
"I feel like I'm pretty good mates with him, being on past Presidents Cup teams and I've known him for a long time now. I didn't realize he was fighting stuff like that upstairs with the putter. But it's painful for players to go through that."
Els tried to gather himself before his putt for triple bogey. He grinned as he stood behind his ball, stepped up and missed again. He one-handed and missed his fifth attempt before tapping in for a nine.
He also missed short par putts at 17 and 18 to end the round a distant 14 strokes off the pace.
"I don't know how I stayed out there," Els said. "But you love the game and you got to have respect for the (Masters) and so forth, but it's unexplainable. It's very tough to tell you what goes through your mind.
"It's the last thing that you want to do is do that on a golf course at this level. It's very difficult."
The previous Masters high score on Augusta National's opening hole was eight, recorded by Olin Browne and Scott Simpson in 1998 and matched in 2001 by the late Billy Casper, who was 69 at the time, and India's Jeev Milkha Singh in 2007.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Is Zuleyka Rivera? 5 Things To Know About The ‘Despacito’ Actress

With ‘Despacito’ up for Record of the Year at the 2018 Grammy Awards, here’s everything you need to know about the music video’s actress — Zuleyka Rivera! 1. She’s a renowned beauty queen.  Not only did she claim the Miss Universe Puerto Rico title, Zuleyka eventually took the top prize and was later crowned Miss Universe in 2006. 2. After her huge Miss Universe win, she studied acting and eventually became a TV star.  She now lives in Miami where she’s frequently a special guest or a host on shows like  Un Nuevo Dia  on Telemundo and  Despierta America  on Univision. Before that, she became a breakout star by appearing on several Televisa soap operas in Mexico. 3. In addition to modeling, she also owns her own clothing line.  On top of running her own teen-ware clothing collection, she also has three fragrance lines called the Karisma, Zuleyka and Zuleyka 2010. If that wasn’t impressive enough, she also started an amazing swims...
Post a Comment
Read more

Frank Ocean new album: How to listen and stream Boys Don’t Cry when it drops

After two missed release dates a year apart and a confusing decoy of a “live stream” video, Frank Ocean is set to finally release his second album,  Boys Don’t Cry , on Friday 5 August. It will be launched through an exclusive deal with Apple Music, according to the  New York Times , who cite a ‘person with knowledge of the release plans’. If indeed this is the case (and it would make sense, that live stream has an Apple watermark), it means you’ll need to sign up for Apple Music to listen to the  Channel Orange  follow-up, which costs £9.99 a month (£4.99 for students through Apple’s UNiDAYS promotion). You might want to turn off auto-renewal off though (Apple Music app > profile icon > View Apple ID. > Subscriptions > Manage > switch Auto-Renewal off), if you’re the kind of person who, like me, is liable to forget that you’ve signed up for the service indefinitely. Beyond Apple Music...
Post a Comment
Read more

Celine Dion Gives a Tearful Interview After Her 2016 Billboard Music Awards Performance: "Music Is Extremely Therapeutic"

As  Céline Dion  sang, "The Show Must Go On"—and go on it did. At the  2016 Billboard Music Awards  Sunday, the 48-year-old diva brought down the house with her cover of  Queen 's "The Show Must Go On." Celine received a standing ovation inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and to top it off, she received the ICON Award from her 15-year-old son,  René-Charles Angélil . A surprised and emotional Celine thanked her fans, family, children, and "most importantly," her late husband  René Angélil , "who I know will continue to watch over me from above." Celine added, "René, this one's for you. The show must go on." Celine then made her way backstage to do interviews, but paused to watch  Madonna  and  Stevie Wonder 's tribute to  Prince . She danced, sang along and snapped her fingers as they performed"Nothing Compares 2 U" (which Prince wrote  Sinéad O'Connor ) and "Purple Rain." Afterward, C...
Post a Comment
Read more