Ernie’s Bio

Started playing golf at age 9…An accomplished junior tennis player, turned full attention to golf at age 14…Heavily involved in junior golf of South Africa and Cancer Society of South Africa…Hosts Ernie Els Invitational in South Africa to raise money for charity. Ernie Els Foundation formed in early 1999, with the purpose of providing full support to disadvantaged children. Proceeds from the Ernie Els Invitational go to four charities and the Foundation…In December 1998, received lifetime membership on European Tour. Other non-Europeans so honored are Bob Charles, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player…In 2002, the 2000 Engelbrecht-Els wine was released and received the highest rating yet given to a South African wine…Third Ernie Els design signature golf course near George in South Africa opened in 2004…Web site is ernieels.com.

Tags: anna+rawson

A Brief Ben Hogan Bio

In 292 career PGA Tour events, Ben Hogan finished in the Top 3 in 47.6-percent of them. He finished in the Top 10 in 241 of those 292 events.

Hogan was born near Fort Worth in 1912. Hogan and Byron Nelson were childhood acquaintances, caddying at the same Fort Worth club. They even squared off one year for the club’s caddie championship (Nelson won).

Hogan’s childhood was rough – his father committed suicide, and it is believed that Hogan witnessed the tragic event.

Hogan turned pro in 1929, at age 17, to play pro events in Texas. He didn’t join the PGA Tour until 1932. Much of his early career, Hogan battled a hook. But through a tremendous work ethic, he changed his game to a controlled fade (in his famous words, he “dug it out of the dirt”). In 1940, he began winning, and often.

He missed a couple years on Tour due to World War II, but returned full-time in 1946 and won 13 times, including his first major, the PGA. From August 1945 to February 1949, Hogan won 37 times. But in 1949, he suffered terrible injuries in a car crash, and was never again able to play a full schedule due to circulatory problems in his legs.

In fact, from 1950 on, Hogan never played more than 7 PGA Tour events in a year. Yet, he won 13 more times, including 6 majors. Until Tiger Woods did it in 2000, Hogan was the only man to win three professional majors in one season. That was in 1953, when Hogan won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. He was unable to play the PGA because it started too close to the finish of the British Open. From 1946 to 1953, Hogan won 9 of the 16 majors he played.

Hogan brought his same quest for perfection to the golf clubs made by the company that bore his name, and Ben Hogan Golf produced many of the finest clubs available over the years.

His demeanor on the course was quiet and focused. With others, Hogan was often distant, aloof, brusque or even rude. But he had everyone’s respect.

Ben Hogan was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

Enjoy your weekend! Looks like rain here in the North East, so unfortunately, probably no golf for me

View the Video Now – I would embed the video here directly, but their player seems to like to automatically start playing the video. I do not care for that so much, I really dislike those sites that have audio blaring in the background…you frantically look around for a stop button…yeah no…please excuse my completely unrelated rant.

Just don’t go overboard watching these things…you’re liable to get about 10 million swing thoughts in your head and then head out to the course not even knowing how to swing a club

This site even has a series on how to become a Ninja…which I found quite comical. Almost as entertaining as Golf Girl TV.

• Live Video
• Live Leaderboard
• Tee Times/Pairings

The video is based off this schedule:

9/13 Thursday 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (ET)
9/14 Friday 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (ET)
9/15 Saturday 12:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (ET)
9/16 Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (ET)

And who were the lucky 30 to make it into the playoff for the ten million dollar…you’ll get it when you’re one-hundred and ten….event?

Tags: tour+championship, live+video