Then he missed from two feet again, then from four feet.
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Els, who won The Open in 2012 using a belly putter, has struggled with the “yips” in recent years.
Ernie Els, like most of the US Masters field, probably allowed visions of slipping on a nice, snug Green Jacket on Sunday evening. I was standing there, I’ve got a 3-footer. I didn’t realise he was fighting stuff like that upstairs with the putter.
It started harmlessly enough.
On Friday, Els left himself a 35-footer for par at the first, lagged it up to 2 feet – and missed.
Looking increasingly exasperated with each miss, he carelessly one-handed the eighth shot and missed before doing so again and holing for a quintuple-bogey. Video quickly began making the rounds on social media showing Els knocking the ball back and forth past the cup, totally bedeviled by the slick, treacherous greens at Augusta National. There were so many putts even the tournament computer lost count.
The South African, whose relaxed ways and smooth swing begat the nickname the Big Easy, took a 9 on the first hole Thursday in the first round at Augusta National Golf Club. “I don’t know how I stayed out there”.
It was the highlight to the opening act of Watson’s swan song at the Masters.
The last six-putt on the PGA Tour was made by Graham DeLaet at the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool, eighth hole on Friday.
Watson is playing his 43rd and final Masters this week and as a result, scores are likely not to matter much to him or the patrons.
“I feel bad for Ernie”, defending Masters champion Jordan Spieth said.
” I was complaining about the crowd not cheering”, Sullivan said. It was a pleasure to be able to play in front of them.
“It was a little better”, he said. “I could go on the practice putting green and make 20 straight three-footers”.
His sextuple bogey was the worst score on the first hole at the Masters, breaking the previous record by two strokes.
He was optimistic again, despite four bogeys and four birdies.
“It’s unexplainable”, Els said.
“I’ve been playing really well”. The whole day was a grind.
If Els made par twice at No. 1, he would have easily made the cut at 2 over.
His wife Leizl said: “People don’t realise the agony he went through before going to the long putter”. Obviously, no one had expected a professional golfer to need that many strokes on one hole, even if it was actually only nine.
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“It’s hard to putt when you’ve got snakes in your head”.
