We’ve just finished-up here at the Principal Charity Classic and obviously it’s been a great week. Thank you to everyone involved in the tournament, the fans and the sponsors. It’s a very special feeling to win again. I haven’t won for a while. I’ve had quite a few chances, but it gets tougher when you don’t get it over the line.

You know, I think I was just more ‘into it’ this week. We had a game plan, I stayed in the present and didn’t get ahead of myself. As I said, it’s tough when you haven’t won in such a long time, you can easily get a bit antsy, but I felt comfortable; I didn’t get rattled when I hit a bad shot or faced an important putt. I was just in the zone. All week I felt like I played within myself, just focused on taking care of the small stuff, and when you do that well it usually leads to a good week, so yeah, really pleased with how this one turned out. 

This now is hopefully a stepping stone. We’ll keep working hard and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. The guys out here are very competitive and, on the type of golf courses that we play, it’s hard to separate yourself over three rounds; you have to stay in it for 54 holes and these past few years I haven’t really done that. When I joined the Champions Tour I always felt like I wanted to get into a winning frame of mind. Let’s see how we go. Golf is still my first love. Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to play at this level and I still do. I’m 54, I love the Tour, I just want to keep going and keep getting better. 

As you may have noticed, we have a new website! The team have been working hard behind the scenes in the off-season and we’re delighted with the results. I think this new website better reflects this stage of my life. Obviously, tournament golf remains my main focus and passion. But life for me now is about so much more – from golf course design, various business interests and, of course, our charitable endeavours. We hope you like it and that you’ll visit regularly to catch up on all our latest news. You’ll notice there’s a tab on the homepage that allows you to sign-up for our regular newsletter. 

You can keep tabs on my playing schedule here on the website. We update it on a regular basis as the season unfolds, basically once I’m committed to a tournament. There’s also a page dedicated to my equipment in ‘What’s in the Bag’. For the trivia buffs among you, there’s also a complete list of my tournament wins and career highlights. 

Ernie Els Design has a prominent showing on the new website. We’ve got some exciting news in the pipeline and I’ll be able to share that with you soon. In the meantime, I’d invite you to take a tour of our existing portfolio of golf courses. They’re spread far and wide across the globe, in locations as diverse as rain forest and desert, and our relatively young firm’s success is a source of enormous pride for me and the rest of the team. 

The descriptions and photos in the new section on Ernie Els Wines beautifully illustrate what’s on offer at our winery. Have a virtual browse. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to welcome you in person. This year the team at the winery launched a new online store rewards program called ‘Easy Bucks’ so when you start shopping you’ll start earning rewards immediately.

Also on the homepage you’ll see display banners for our Els for Autism charity golf series in the US and in South Africa. As always, the team have done a really great job putting together a schedule of tournaments at some wonderful venues. Amazingly, we’re now into our 14th year of the Golf Challenge in the US and the fundraising total exceeds $30 million. That’s just incredible. Thank you so much to our partners, participating golfers and donors. Every dollar and cent is helping change the lives of individuals and families affected by autism. 

Okay, that’s it for now. We’ll see you on here again soon I hope! 

The post Ernie’s Latest News – 2 June appeared first on Ernie Els.

We’ve arrived with the family in South Africa for our customary end-of-season vacation, something we all look forward to very much. 

But before I pretty much disappear until the New Year, there’s time for a quick update. The inaugural World Champions Cup in Florida, which we wrote about in a previous report, turned out to be a very special week. It was great to be part of such an amazing team (pictured below). We gave it our best shot and we had so much fun along the way, too. Of course, in the heat of the moment it stings to lose, but it was an unbelievable finish – a good one for the spectators! Congrats to the American team. 

Reflecting on the first playing of this tournament, obviously none of us quite knew what to expect, but all of us are united in thinking it was a real success, featuring some great golf on a demanding golf course. The format works; the games were very tight and no one really broke away. I mean, after all those matches, all those points up for grabs, it came down to the final hole, pretty much the final shot. I think we’ll all take away some wonderful memories of the week. It’s certainly a nice addition to the Champions Tour schedule. 

And really that’s about it for 2023. As I said in my previous report, golf-wise it’s been a solid year. Just the one victory and a bunch of top-10s. I had some leads, had some chances, but didn’t quite finish the job off. In this off-season I’ll have a little think about my tournament schedule in 2024. I love the competition and I’m enjoying being on the Champions Tour with the guys, but I’m thinking I might play a bit less than I have the last 2-3 years. We’ll see. 

Away from the competitive golf scene, there’s a lot of activity in the pipeline. In particular, 2024 looks like being a big year for Ernie Els Design. We can’t wait to share more news with you on that front. Myself and the whole team are really excited about what’s in store. 

One final thing, my good friend Nico Van Rensburg and the team at Els for Autism have launched the schedule for the Ernie Els Charities SA Series for 2024. As always, they’ve done a superb job pulling together a calendar of golf days at some great venues around South Africa (see poster below). Get in touch if you’d like to take part. 

All that remains is for me to thank you as always for your support throughout 2023. It means a lot to me. I wish you and your families good health and happiness in 2024. When all is said and done, that’s what matters in life. 

The post Ernie’s Latest News – 13 December appeared first on Ernie Els.

Where is this year going? We’re now looking at the final push towards the end of the Champions Tour season. This is how my schedule looks for the next six weeks…

Oct 6-8, Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS, Timuquana CC, Florida
Oct 13-15, SAS Championship, Prestonwood CC, Cary, North Carolina
Oct 20-22, Dominion Energy Charity Classic, The Country Club of Virginia, Virginia
Nov 3-5, TimberTech Championship, The Old Course at Broken Sound, Florida
Nov 9-12, Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Phoenix CC, Phoenix, Arizona

I’ll play every one of these tournaments. The Charles Schwab money list may be all but sewn-up after a great stretch of tournaments by Steve Stricker, but there’s a lot to play for still. As always, I’m motivated to keep putting in the work and to try to play my best golf and finish the season strongly. There’s never a bad time to win! 

Shortly after the conclusion of the Champions Tour season we have a brand new event, the World Champions Cup taking place at The Concession GC in Florida from December 7-10. The course name is actually inspired by Jack Nicklaus’ famous gesture of conceding the final putt to Tony Jacklin in the 1969 Ryder Cup and the pair of them were responsible for the design of this layout, so it’s a fitting venue for this new matchplay event. 

I’m the playing captain for the Internationals against the Europeans, led by Darren Clarke, and Jim Furyk’s American team. We’re all looking forward to it. This is obviously going to be a lot of fun, but you know it’s going to be super-competitive, too. We’ll all be fired-up for this. And it’s a nine-hole format, which is going to be interesting. There’s certainly no room for slow starts; you need to come out of the blocks fast and all guns blazing. For that reason, it’s going to be an entertaining spectacle for the fans.

Away from golf, last month we celebrated another landmark moment in the story of Els for Autism with the grand opening of the Stoops Family Adult Services Building, a dedicated space for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Pictured below from left-to-right: major donors Cindy & Randy Langenfeld, Executive Director Dr. Marlene Sotelo, Ben Els, co-founder Liezl Els, client Tyler Pavkov, co-founder Ernie Els, client Jennifer Langenfeld, Chairman Dr. Michael Alessandri, major donors Agnes, Jeff, & Lauren Stoops. This impressive facility, located at The Els Center of Excellence® campus in Jupiter, Florida, is a place for individuals with ASD to access the essential support and services needed during the transition to adulthood years and throughout life as an adult. It represents a significant step in the foundation’s long-term vision of creating a world of limitless possibilities for individuals with ASD and their families.

Liezl and I want to personally extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this new building a reality. We couldn’t have reached this milestone without the incredible support of our community, generous donors, dedicated staff, and enthusiastic volunteers. We never take for granted their faith in us and their belief in our mission; they really are the driving force behind this latest achievement. For more information on this new building and The Els for Autism Foundation and its many activities and fundraising initiatives, please visit the official website: https://www.elsforautism.org/.

This past few months there’s also been a lot of buzz on the golf course design front. I’d love to tell you more right now, but some of the news is embargoed for the time being. We can, however, share this stunning new image (below and top of page) taken this month at one of our existing projects at Ernie Els Design, Lido Lakes in Indonesia, which we anticipate will open for play around the middle of 2024.

I was seriously impressed when we first went here some years back. For a golf course designer, these are the kind of settings you love to work with. It’s a majestic landscape, located between two volcanoes, and there are some truly breathtaking holes. All of us are excited about this one and we believe Lido Lakes is going to be a new go-to destination for golfers in south east Asia.

Anyway, as I said, there’s lots of exciting news to come from Ernie Els Design in the coming months. Watch this space!

Finally, just a quick acknowledgment – it’s now five years since I became a global ambassador for XXIO, including Srixon and Cleveland. As another season moves towards its conclusion, I want to thank them and all of my sponsors for the continued support. These three equipment brands have provided a great mix for me. I won both my US Opens using Cleveland wedges and in my opinion you can’t beat them for aesthetics and performance. And being involved with a new brand like XXIO has been very enjoyable; they’re really going places and it’s always nice to have some input with the team in regard to the company’s product development. Here’s my current Kit List in full…

Driver: XXIO 12 Driver, 8.7 degrees
3-wood: XXIO X 3-wood, 14 degrees, EvenFlow Blue 6.5 85x shaft
Irons 2-5: Srixon ZX Mk II utility irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft
Irons 6-9: Srixon ZX7 Mk II irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 6 ZipCore Tour Rack wedges 52MB, 56MB, 60LB with KBS S taper 130X
Golf Ball: Srixon Z Star XV (yellow)
Glove: Srixon
Putter: Bloodline
Shoes: Puma PROADAPT ALPHACAT
Apparel: Bobby Jones & Sunice Sports

That’s it for now. I’ll write again soon. 

The post Ernie’s Latest News – 1 October appeared first on Ernie Els.

Since my last report we’ve visited the states of Alabama, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin for a run of tournaments on the PGA Champions Tour schedule.  

At the time of writing, we’ve had five top-10s in the last six starts. That’s some solid play, although not quite the level we want to be at. Saying that, I feel like all aspects of my game are in good shape. Coming up soon is a big run of tournaments, including three major championships in the space of four weeks – the US Senior Open Championship in Wisconsin, The Open Championship at Hoylake and The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. Some seriously good golf courses in that little stretch and obviously a lot to look forward to. Let’s see how we go. 

There’s plenty going on away from the tournament scene, too. Not least, the team at Ernie Els Wines has received good news in the form of accolades and high scores for some of the wines in its portfolio. The undoubted highlight in recent weeks is a gold medal and an impressive 95-point rating for our Signature 2017 vintage (pictured below) at the Decanter World Wine Awards, the largest and most influential wine competition in the world. Huge congrats to head winemaker Louis Strydom and the rest of the team at the winery. This 2017 vintage was made available to purchase online only this week and we’re anticipating high demand, so don’t delay your order for too long! Shop online here.

On the golf course design front, our firm’s senior design associate Greg Letsche has been interviewed for a really good feature in the latest issue of the American Society of Golf Course Architect’s magazine By Design. It focuses on unusual sites for golf courses and how it’s possible, in many case desirable, to utilise existing landmarks and features in the design of a new layout. It is something that Greg and I are always mindful of whenever we view a potential new site; it really can add a sense of authenticity and geographical context to a new design. Click here to read the full article.

Meanwhile, it’s pleasing to hear that we’re getting wonderful turnouts for our series of Els for Autism fundraising golf tournaments in the US and Canada and South Africa. Both series are now at or around the halfway mark, which means there are still plenty of opportunities to take part in 2023. The schedules are available online, with all the details of how to enter. If you’re able to take part, it’ll be great to have you on board, thank you. 

Click here for The Golf Challenge in the US.

Click here for the Ernie Els Charity Series in South Africa.

Finally, for anyone interested in the finer details of all the equipment that I’m using at the moment, here’s what we have in the bag right now…

Driver: XXIO 12 Driver, 8.7 degrees
3-wood: XXIO X 3-wood, 14 degrees, EvenFlow Blue 6.5 85x shaft
Irons 2-5: Srixon ZX Mk II utility irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft
Irons 6-9: Srixon ZX7 Mk II irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 6 ZipCore Tour Rack wedges 52MB, 56MB, 60LB with KBS S taper 130X
Golf Ball: Srixon Z Star XV (yellow)
Glove: Srixon
Putter: Bloodline
Shoes: Puma IGNITE PWRADAPT Caged
Apparel: Bobby Jones & Sunice Sports

Thanks as always to my sponsors for the continued support.

Okay that’s it for now. Don’t forget to follow me on social media. All the links you need are at the bottom of this page. 

The post Ernie’s Latest News – 15 June appeared first on Ernie Els.

OLEADA Pacific Living & Golf, a brand-new 860-acre oceanfront resort community on the southern point of Mexico’s stunning Baja peninsula, is the location for the latest project in the Ernie Els Design portfolio. 

OLEADA Golf Links Los Cabos will be an 18-hole links-style championship course, situated 15 minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas, set along OLEADA’s expansive one mile stretch of golden sand beach. With the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop for the breathtaking desert landscape, OLEADA will offer a unique untamed luxury experience that melds an unparalleled collection of resort and residential options. 

“Our goal at OLEADA will be to build a core golf course that harmonizes with nature,” says Ernie. “We envision a compact design that drapes naturally on the land, steps lightly on nature’s toes and functions as an environmental steward of the site’s indigenous flora and fauna. With its rolling dunes, elevation changes and majestic desert-meets-ocean setting, I believe we can produce a versatile test that will rank among the best and most beautiful courses we’ve ever built.”

The site for the new course, a spectacular parcel of land on the Pacific Ocean, has an intricate maze of windswept dunes and sandy ridges. These natural landforms offer sheltered valleys and winding corridors ideal for the placement of golf holes. Ernie, a two-time winner of The Open, has a special fondness for links courses and a deep knowledge of how seaside breezes dictate shot values and strategy. 

“Because the native contours and dune formations are so good, very little earthmoving will be required to build the course,” commented Ernie on a recent site visit. “Shaping will be very minimalistic. Man cannot improve on what Mother Nature has created! The golf course that we create at OLEADA will be here long after I’m gone. That means something and it makes me feel very proud.”

OLEADA will feature some of the most recognized names in design, including Vision Land Design, WATG, iconic Mexican architect Victor Legorreta and landscape architecture by Design Studio of Michael McKay. Along with golf, OLEADA will offer: oceanfront living; world-class resorts; a nursery, orchard and garden; nature, fitness, hiking and biking trails; and much more. Every amenity will be created through a hospitality and wellness centered mindset aimed to provide opportunities to enjoy life at its fullest.

“Alongside introducing OLEADA to the world, we are honored to announce a spectacular championship course by Ernie Els, one of golf’s greatest players,” said Federico Gaxiola, project director at OLEADA Pacific Living & Golf. “As we create a destination founded in responsible luxury, we selected Ernie because of his true understanding of sustainable development and sound environmental practices.” 

To learn more about OLEADA Pacific Living & Golf, visit oleadaloscabos.com.

The post Ernie announces new golf course design on Baja Peninsula appeared first on Ernie Els.