Ernie Els has finished runner-up at a major nine times. Nine. That’s more than plenty of Hall of Famers ever managed even once, and it’s the number that tells you more about his career than the trophies do. Golfer Ernie Els built a legacy on both — four majors won, and a stack of near-misses that would have broken a lesser competitor.

If you’ve caught him wandering a Champions Tour event or commentating from a broadcast tower, you’re probably wondering how the smooth-swinging South African fits into golf’s bigger picture. Here’s the full story, wins and heartbreaks included.

Who Is Ernie Els and Why Is He Called “The Big Easy”?

Ernie Els is a South African professional golfer born on 17 October 1969 in Johannesburg, known across the sport as The Big Easy for a swing that looks like it costs him no effort at all. He’s a four-time major champion and one of the smoothest ball-strikers the game has produced.

Where the Nickname Comes From

The tag isn’t just about his 1.88-metre frame. It’s about tempo. Els generates enormous clubhead speed without any visible strain, and that unhurried rhythm became his calling card from the moment he turned professional in 1989. Commentators latched onto it early, and it stuck for good reason.

Playing Style and Swing

His swing is built on a wide arc and minimal wasted motion, the kind coaches still use as a teaching reference for tempo drills. Els was never the biggest hitter of his era, but his consistency off the tee and touch around the greens carried him through two decades at the top. Watch old footage next to prime Tiger Woods and the contrast is obvious: Woods attacked the ball, Els seemed to just let it happen.

The Major Wins: 1994, 1997, 2002 and 2012

Els has won exactly four majors, and it’s worth being precise here, because his long career sometimes gets mistaken for a bigger haul. He has never won the Masters and never won the PGA Championship — his four wins are split evenly between two tournaments.

He took the U.S. Open in 1994 at Oakmont, beating Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie in a marathon playoff that needed extra holes just to settle it. Three years later he won the U.S. Open again in 1997 at Congressional, this time more comfortably, holding off Montgomerie once more down the stretch.

The Open Championship wins came later and further apart. He lifted the Claret Jug in 2002 at Muirfield after a four-man playoff, and then again a decade later in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St Annes, a win made famous by Adam Scott’s collapse over the closing holes rather than anything Els did wrong.

The Majors He Didn’t Win Tell the Real Story

Four wins is a brilliant career on its own. Nine runner-up finishes at majors is what separates Els from a merely good champion and makes him one of the sport’s great nearly-men. This is the angle most quick profiles skip, and it’s the one that explains him best.

The gut-punch was The Open Championship in 2004 at Royal Troon, where Els lost a playoff to Todd Hamilton, a journeyman American who beat him with a chip-in on the 18th during the four-hole shootout. Els had led for stretches of that final round. Losing to Hamilton, ranked way outside the world’s elite at the time, stung in a way his other defeats didn’t.

He was runner-up at the Masters four times, including a heartbreaking finish in 2004 behind Phil Mickelson, and second at the PGA Championship as well. Add those to the Open playoff loss and you get a player who was in contention at majors constantly, not just occasionally.

1. He lost the 2004 Open Championship in a playoff to Todd Hamilton at Royal Troon.
2. He finished runner-up at the Masters four separate times.
3. He was second at the PGA Championship, the one major where he’s never broken through.
4. He lost multiple U.S. Open near-misses beyond his two wins there.
5. He faced Tiger Woods head-to-head in several of these near-miss finishes during Woods’s peak years.

That rivalry with Woods is unavoidable in any honest account of the near-misses. Els came up during the exact stretch when Woods was untouchable, and several of those runner-up finishes came with Woods holding the trophy instead. It’s not an excuse — Els still had to hole the putts himself — but the timing of his career explains a lot about why four majors feels almost like an underachievement for a player this talented.

Beyond the Majors: Champions Tour, Course Design and Els for Autism

Els’s career didn’t stop when his 40s did. He’s built a second act on the PGA Tour Champions, the senior circuit for players over 50, picking up multiple wins including a Senior Open Championship title. His swing, built for longevity rather than raw power, has aged into the senior game with barely a hiccup.

The Business Side

He runs a golf course design firm, Ernie Els Design, with credits on layouts across South Africa, the United States and Asia. It’s a quieter part of his legacy, but it’s earned him serious respect within the industry, not just as a player lending his name to a project but as someone genuinely involved in the design process.

Charity and Recognition

Els for Autism, the foundation he and his wife founded after their son’s diagnosis, has raised significant funds for autism research and support services since it launched. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011, and he later served as a Presidents Cup captain for the International Team, leading a squad that pushed the Americans hard at Quail Hollow in 2022. His career earnings on the PGA Tour alone run into the tens of millions, and that’s before Champions Tour money, course design fees and endorsements are added in.

If you enjoy this kind of deep dive into a legend’s career, Golf Yet has similar profiles on other major champions worth reading through when you’re deciding who to watch next on TV.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Ernie Els ever won the Masters?

No. Ernie Els has never won the Masters, despite finishing runner-up there four times. His four majors are two U.S. Opens (1994, 1997) and two Open Championships (2002, 2012).

How many majors has Ernie Els won in total?

He’s won four majors total, not more, despite a career spanning over three decades. Some fans mistake his longevity for a bigger tally, but the number has stayed at four since 2012.

What is Ernie Els’s nickname and why?

He’s called The Big Easy because of his effortless-looking swing tempo. The name has followed him since the early 1990s and remains how commentators and fans refer to him today.