** Ernie Els, South African golfer

The current champion is Ernie Els who won in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire.

** British Open – Todd Hamilton, a virtual unknown, wins at Royal Troon in a playoff over Ernie Els

* – British Open – Ernie Els wins his third major and first British Open.

* U. S. Open – Ernie Els

Theodore Ernest " Ernie " Els (; born 17 October 1969 ) is a South African professional golfer.

2004 was the start of the " Big Five Era ", which is used in describing the era in golf where Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson dominated the game of golf.

At the start of the 2007 season Ernie Els laid out a three-year battle plan to challenge Tiger Woods as world number one.

The Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation was established in 1999.

Players like Robert Allenby, Raymond Floyd, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Ernie Els, Jay Haas, Johnny Miller, and Gary Player have participated.

He remained the leader in career earnings on the European Tour until 2010, when he was surpassed by Ernie Els.

At the 1994 U. S. Open, played at Oakmont Country Club, Montgomerie lost in a three-man playoff to Ernie Els ( a playoff which also included Loren Roberts ).

World-class golfers who have or have had homes on the estate include Sir Nick Faldo, European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle, Ernie Els and Thomas Bjørn.

Clients include golfers Lee Westwood, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, and Christina Kim.

Players such as Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have taken advantage of this to play the PGA and European Tours concurrently and even Tiger Woods, who has sometimes played nine of the necessary eleven events, once suggested that he might enter the extra four required so that he could win the European Order of Merit, although he has yet to do so.

At the start of 2006 five of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking were full members of the European Tour, namely Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sergio García, Adam Scott and Colin Montgomerie.

Later that year, Hamilton defeated Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff to win The Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club.

* July 18-The Open Championship-Todd Hamilton wins at Royal Troon in a playoff over Ernie Els

The company also produces sports related items such as figurines and die-cast on top of having exclusive agreements to produce memorabilia ( under the brand name Upper Deck Authenticated ) with such sports superstars as Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Andrew Bynum, Ernie Els, Albert Pujols, Grady Sizemore, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Sandy Koufax and Ken Griffey Jr.

* Ernie Els ( born 1969 ), South African golfer

Ernie Els, golfer ( 1969 – )

With this bogey the lead was down to two strokes from Ernie Els with two holes to play.

Scott shot a final round of 75 to finish at six under, one stroke behind the champion Ernie Els.

Norman would return to the top ranking in 1995 and 1996, then after a single week at No. 1 by Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods dominated the position from 1997 to 2010 with brief interruptions from Ernie Els, David Duval, and then from September 2004 Vijay Singh, who became the twelfth World No. 1 following his win at the PGA Championship.

All three of the individual World Golf Championships events will be played in the United States from 2007, which has attracted criticism from some golfers, including Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, and in the media outside the United States.

Earnhardt was very consistent, scoring four wins, and after Ernie Irvan was sidelined due to a near-deadly crash at Michigan ( the two were neck-and-neck at the top of the points up until the crash ), won title by over 400 points over Mark Martin.

Ernie Els plays brilliantly given the conditions to record a 72, and wins after a 4-man playoff, the first in major championship history, involving Steve Elkington, Stuart Appleby and Frenchman Thomas Levet.

* July 18-Todd Hamilton wins The Open at Royal Troon, surprising many by beating Ernie Els in a playoff for the title, from a final-day leaderboard that also included recent major champions Mickelson, Goosen, Woods, and Mike Weir.

He wins his first tournament, defeating an established pro named Ernie McCracken ( Bill Murray ).

Ernie Els wins a second U. S. Open, once again defeating Colin Montgomerie in a close finish.

At the last event of the year, Toms entered a four-man playoff at The Tour Championship where he, Sergio García and Ernie Els lost out on the first extra hole to Mike Weir.

He had a good chance to win, but bogeyed the final hole of the four-hole playoff to fall into sudden death with Ernie Els, where he again bogeyed to lose to Els.

He contended in an 18-hole playoff with Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie.

Although shortstop Ernie Banks would become one of the star players in the league during the next decade, finding help for him proved a difficult task, as quality players such as Hank Sauer were few and far between.

He founded beat band The Moans in 1964, which would later become Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers.

According to Berry's biographer Mark A. Moore, " The song ( with backing vocals, plus additional instruments added by the Ernie Freeman combo ) had a raucous R & B flavor, with a bouncing bomp-bomp vocal hook that would become a signature from Jan on future recordings.

It wouldn't be until 1983 that the band returned to its former success with the release of the album, Between the Sheets, which would become the final album to include Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper.

Republican Ernie Fletcher defeats Democrat Ben Chandler to become Governor of Kentucky.

By 1976, the story had become sufficiently safe in Britain to be parodied by Morecambe and Wise ; a " play what Ernie wrote ", The Handyman and M ' Lady, was obviously based on it, with Michele Dotrice as the Lady Chatterley figure.

This 1976 sketch has become one of the duo's most familiar and is a parody of a stripper routine where Eric and Ernie are seen listening to the radio at breakfast time.

* February 2-Ontario Minister of Finance Ernie Eves quits to become vice-chair and senior adviser at Credit Suisse First Boston Canada.

Outstanding batsman such as Joe Darling, Clem Hill, Reggie Duff, Syd Gregory, Warren Bardsley and Victor Trumper, brilliant all-rounders including Monty Noble, George Giffen, Harry Trott and Warwick Armstrong and excellent bowlers including Ernie Jones, Hugh Trumble, Tibby Cotter, Bill Howell, Jack Saunders and Bill Whitty, all helped Australia to become the dominant cricketing nation for most of this period.

Ernie Coombs and the character of Mr. Dressup have become strong Canadian icons and a part of Canadian pop culture.

This practice has since become known as " pulling an Ernie Ladd " in some circles.

Mauer finished the 2006 regular season with a. 347 batting average, edging the New York Yankees ' Derek Jeter and Robinson Canó to win the American League batting title and become the first-ever American League catcher to win the crown and the first catcher to claim the title since Ernie Lombardi in 1942 with the Boston Braves.

Even without the combination of extreme power ( Yogi Berra, Al Kaline, George Brett ) or high batting average ( Ernie Banks, Harmon Killebrew, Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson ) this batting position contains an inordinate number of hitters who eventually become members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1983 Ernie Roberts retired, allowing David Nash to become the second General Secretary.

Ernie is present at battalion headquarters when Lieutenant Walker arrives as a runner for his company commander ; Walker has already become an always tired, seemingly emotionless, and grimy soldier.

Ernie finds that Company C has become very proficient at killing without remorse.

Owner Ernie Tannen installed Jim Hooker, later to become a successful radio sales trainer, as the general manager.

Zhang came to global attention at the 2003 Caltex Singapore Masters, where he edged out Ernie Els with a birdie on the final hole to become the first Chinese golfer to win on the European Tour.

It was patterned after the Ghoulardi character created by Ernie Anderson ( with his permission ), who was later to become the voice of the ABC network in the 1970s.

Despite this, he finished 8th at North Carolina Speedway and defeated promising rivals Ernie Irvan and Brad Noffsinger to become the 1988 NASCAR Rookie of the Year.