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WORLD GOLF HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONYMay 9, 2011Ernie ElsST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA TRAVIS HILL: Welcome, everyone, to the 2011 World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony press conferences. With me is 2011 inductee Ernie Els, three-time major winner, and we'll start our questions now. Q. I'm sure you've thought about this, but what it'll be like playing after the induction and having one other title when you're introduced on the tee? Will that give you additional pressure and so on? ERNIE ELS: I think it'll be special. I don't know how many there are playing on the TOUR being in the Hall of Fame. I know Vijay got inducted and I know Nick Price got inducted, but he's on the Senior Tour now. But I think it'll be a very special feeling to step on the first tee knowing you've made the Hall of Fame. I'm still trying to win golf tournaments, still trying to win major championships, so I think it's a huge bonus for anybody's career. I just had lunch, we had dinner here last night, and meeting some of the other members of the club, of the Hall, so to speak, and most of these people were idols, heroes of mine. It was nice to meet them, and to think that you're in the same group as them, you know, you've got to shake your -- you've got to think about it a little bit. So very special. Q. Growing up and playing golf, junior golf in South Africa, did you ever imagine yourself being voted into a Hall of Fame? ERNIE ELS: No, no, no. Coming from South Africa, I didn't even know there was a Hall of Fame. I look back in the records now, the Hall of Fame has been going since 1940, so obviously I missed something. I was just trying to -- my dream was to win majors and to try and do what Gary Player did, win the Grand Slam and win a bunch of golf tournaments, trying to get onto the U.S. Tour and things like that. Obviously the Hall of Fame, as you get older as a golfer, you start hearing more of it and realizing, hey, maybe that's a group of guys or a group of people I'd like to be a part of. But no, as a junior, no, that never crossed my mind. It was always trying to win tournaments. Q. The golf Hall of Fame is unique. You usually think of players as being at the end of their careers when they're inducted into a Hall of Fame, but can you speak to still wanting to add to your legacy? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I would very much like to. I'm 41 now. I'll be 42 in October. You know, just speaking from -- my very current form has been diabolical so far this year, so I'd like to get that right as soon as possible, hopefully this week. But no, I feel so much drive in me, so much that I'd like to still accomplish in the game. I know time is running out, but many players in history have won quite a few majors in their 40s, and I'd like to prove them right somehow. So I'd like to do that. I'd like to win tournaments. So yeah, it is a -- I wouldn't say awkward, but it's kind of a funny situation where you get into something like this while still very active as a player. So we'll see how we juggle it. But it shouldn't change me at all. Q. I was looking at the museum over here. How did you go about picking -- how long did that take to come up with the stuff for the display, and how much stuff did you have to weed out, and was it difficult and whatnot? ERNIE ELS: Well, you know, as you can see there, they don't have any of my major trophies in there. I think people know that -- I thought I would show them some other stuff that I've done. Obviously my stuff is scattered all over the world. We've got obviously homes in South Africa and then we lived in England for 12 years, and now I'm in Jupiter, Florida. So there's stuff all over the place. So it was kind of difficult to DHL a lot of, I think, valuable stuff. A lot of the stuff I just took from what I have in Florida, and luckily enough, we had the World Match Play there and you must see the South African Open trophy is there. That's a special one. I won that five times, and I think the South African PGA is in there. Some odd ones that people don't really -- would associate me with. It did take some time. It's a bit of pressure, too, to try and get the right formula in there. But mostly stuff that I had, yeah, in Florida came here. But I might swap and change as the years go by. Q. Following that up, there's kind of an interesting book in there that Liezl kept. Could you share that with us and how much you've looked at that over the years? ERNIE ELS: A good friend of ours, Harold Riley, I think some of you guys will know Harold, he does a lot of sketches, and he's an artist, he's very involved with the Daniel Group. He does a lot of sketches and stuff for them, and through the years we've met Harold. I guess Harold is a bit of an historian himself, and he spoke to Liezl, and Liezl walks with me, as you guys know, and wanted to do something kind of special for the family. He suggested to her to start keeping a record of my rounds and of my playing partners the rounds that I've played with, and she's been doing this for I think 12 years or even more now. It's kind of an interesting way of keeping record. You know, you can easily get a DVD or a video or whatever of your round, but that kind of stays, and it's a nice touch. So my wife has been doing that especially out on the major golf courses, at major tournaments. She's been doing it not every round. Some of them there's a lot of dots because some of them I shot many over par. Q. How did you decide on your presenter tonight? ERNIE ELS: Well, it was pretty easy. I mean, Johan has had a great influence on my life, on my career and my life, and you know, golf was a hobby of his, and it's become quite a passion of his. He's a guy that's got a lot of interests in life, and golf is definitely one of them. You know, he's kind of I would say the father figure of golf in South Africa. He's become that. He's helped not only myself but many, many other players with advice or help when they needed it. In my case, you know, I didn't have a Tour card in Europe. I won quite a few events, those South African Open events, and he opened doors where I played in some of his events that he sponsored and so forth and really kind of kick started my career. And now he's just kicking my backside. (Laughter.) But he's a very good friend of ours, and he's had a very good influence on my golf and my career. Q. Speaking of Liezl, she kind of keeps you grounded and I'm sure had a great reaction when you found out about this. Could you talk about what that was like and what she said to you? ERNIE ELS: Yeah. I mean, my life just ticks by, whether I'm a golfer or whatever. But I think they were surprised like I was, very pleasantly surprised, and for a while we didn't know what to really make of it, you know. But this is a feather in Liezl's cap, as well, obviously. She's been with me for -- I wouldn't even say the bulk of my career, 90 percent of my career, and obviously we both have loved the ups and didn't like the downs too much; that's always tough to take as a professional sportsman. But she's lived through it with me. You know, at times she's had to really kind of pull me out of some dark holes, and I really appreciate it obviously. She's just been a pillar of strength behind me for all these years, and obviously now we are parents, and you know, I just couldn't have asked for a better wife and better help than that through life. Sometimes you need that. Q. You kind of talked about it a little, but I'd be remiss not to kind of get an idea where you feel like you are now in your game and going into THE PLAYERS, which is the beginning of a lot of the summer really going into the U.S. Open, British Open. Can you give us an idea of where you feel you are and what you need to do to maybe move a little ahead? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I need a kick start, really. I mean, I need to get going. I think I've got too involved with my putting, I think. I've always been a good putter, and for some reason there's been so many gremlins in my head this year with putting. I don't know if it's a midlife crisis or what it is on the golf course, but it kind of felt like that a little bit. You know, I went back to the drawing board now, especially in the last week, and just going back into what I know. You know, hopefully it's not too big of a journey to go with again. I feel very natural again. I've gone with a short putter again, and just got to see it and do it basically, try and keep it simple. And you're right; there's so many great tournaments coming up. I really want to be ready to play them. I feel I'm close, although my -- the way I've finished has been atrocious, but I feel I'm not too far away. So I'd like to kick start it hopefully here this week. My record is not great here, but so be it; I'll play as good as I can this week, and then we've got great tournaments coming up. We've got the PGA in England, we've got Memorial, which is a great tournament, then we've got the U.S. Open at Congressional like '97, and then we go into the run-up for the Open Championship. So there's some great golf left. Very slow start to my season, but I feel like I've got a lot of ground to make up. But by the end of the summer I'd like to be right in the mix again. That's my goal. Q. I think it was Hubert Green who felt like he set the record bringing more than 70 people to the Hall of Fame induction. It was some enormous amount. How many people are going to be in your entourage for the induction? ERNIE ELS: Well, you know, I was planning to really bring a lot of people, but it's a long way from South Africa. It's right also in the middle of exams for a lot of families with kids, especially my brother. His kids are at school, a lot of them. He's got quite a few kids my kids' age. And my sister, she's got kids at school. So they can't be here. Some of my other mentors, you know, Phil Simmons, who I played a lot of golf with him, he was the professional at Germiston Golf Club where I went every afternoon, I would have loved to have got him, but he can't make it. So there's a lot of people that couldn't make it. But I've got a lot of my American friends that are here. Some people have come from England to be here. So we have a good, I don't know, probably 20, 30 people here, which will be nice. Q. I'd like to take you back to 1996, your book. Shortly after at age 24 you won the U.S. Open, the next Jack Nicklaus, all that. Gary Player did the foreword in here and I think paid you the ultimate compliment, labeled you the first-ever Ernie Els, so you're very unique. People want you in the Hall of Fame obviously. What do you think is unique about you? What do you think inspires people even more than other major championships or the other 135 people in the Hall of Fame? ERNIE ELS: I think everybody here is unique in their own way, I mean, obviously. You don't get inducted in here without doing something to catch people's attention, whether it's winning 18 or 19 majors like Jack Nicklaus or building golf courses like Pete Dye. You know, there are people here that have done special things in the game of golf. Obviously, you know, there's a criteria that I fell into and people feel that I should be here. I feel I've won my fair share of tournaments around the world, you know, a truly global golfer like my idol Gary Player. Not as many majors as him, yet; he won nine majors and obviously completed the Grand Slam, one of five ever players. But you know, it's great to be in this Hall. To answer that question, you might have to ask somebody else. You kind of do what you need to do, you know, what your dream is, and just keep following it. Sometimes, like the last four months, you hit a low and you've got to pick yourself up and you've got to keep living the dream, and that's ultimately what you want to do. Q. Tell us about Els for Autism and the tournaments that you're kind of working on right now. ERNIE ELS: Yeah, we're into it now. We've done a couple. We had one in Palm Beach at PGA National, we did one in Dallas a couple of days ago. We're doing 30 events around the country where we have two-man teams, and they raise money. It's a $200 entry fee and then you've got to raise money. Then the people who raise the most money go to the finals, which is in Vegas, on the 23rd and 24th of October. We're hoping to obviously raise as much money as we can for the center that we ultimately want to build, and that's something spectacular like here at the Hall of Fame, and help kids properly who have autism and help them right up to the age of at least 21, because at the moment kids who have autism go to the age of 14, and after that there's not a lot for them to offer. They've either got to go into mainstream society or go home and their parents have to look after them. So we'd like to fill that gap and have the right people who can get behind what's going on with autism and the research. That's the ultimate goal. TRAVIS HILL: Thanks a lot, Ernie. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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