2K10 Preview: The Els Factor

At the end of the HSBC Champions many a golf fan got exactly what they wanted. Phil Mickelson had staved off the world's best in the final group and set visions sweeter than sugar plums dancing in our heads. Could someone finally go toe-to-toe (not off the club face of course) with Tiger, with consistency, on the largest stages? Will 2010 be the greatest season of golf ever? It's impossible not to wonder or even hope for that matter. However, as you'll see in the highlights of the final day's play an added bonus emerged in the 2010 speculation; Ernie Els may be back.



Very quietly The Big Easy has begun to return to form. He first tantalized us by factoring for much of the PGA Championship, eventually ending up in a tie for sixth. Showing it wasn't a flash in the pan performance he was only bested by Health Slocum's final 25ft birdie putt at the Barclay's during the FedEx Playoffs. That may have been the greatest T-2 of all-time as it included Tiger, Padraig Harrington and Steve Stricker along with Ernie....That's 20 major championship wins in the runner-up spot! With this latest runner-up, and a closing 63, Els has hopefully thrown his name in the 2010 hat. No one has had more high quality head-to-head duels with Tiger as Ernie and for what we are hoping out of the next golf calender year the more major champions the merrier.