248 Quotes by Ernie Els

Excessive drinking is not good for my health, my family or my game. There has definitely been a change, and I feel better for it.

Thanks for bringing that up, I never thought of it. When you play golf tournaments you never think about it. When you are playing you try and be ready with your total game and when that is well groomed and practiced you are ready for the tournament. That has always been my philosophy.

Yesterday I said it would be difficult and it showed today,

Obviously my game wasn't too good at Augusta, I had a couple of technical faults, the posture wasn't too good. It's a bit unfortunate because I was playing a lot of good golf, but when I got sick (flu) before The Masters, that was bad timing and I wasn't quite myself.

Right now, the putt on the 72nd hole, that's the putt I'm going to be thinking about. I hit such a good second shot and had such a difficult putt. If I'd known how difficult it was from there, I'd have hit it past the pin, which I tried to do in the playoff. I had my chances, though.

When I got to my ball, I was like, what's going on? I've never seen that happen. I was very happy to make a 4.

I've not given up hope the belly-putter will be banned. The R and A and the USGA are looking at it right now.

Right now the plan is to come back for the South African Open in December,

Make a conscious effort to loosen your hands and let your arms feel soft when you're at address. Take the club back a bit shorter, and feel as if you're cracking a whip on the way down - not tensing up to smash something hard.