75TH ANNIVERSARY
Els shot 80 with 39 putts. “I’m a little dead inside,” he confessed to the media. “I don’t know how I stayed out there.” “I had ridden
IRONMAN The 2016 Masters
with Els was Kerr’s 30th consecutive trip to Augusta.
to the course with Ernie and his wife Liezl,” says Kerr, “and during the round I was kind of dreading the return ride. I wanted it to be free of any suspicions that I had quit on him, and there wasn’t. In fact, he thanked me, saying, ‘Case- man, you gave me 100 percent today.’ I answered, ‘And tomorrow, I’m going to give you 110 percent. But I’ll tell you, I’ve never been more exhausted after a round.” The next day, Els shot an admirable 73, fittingly finishing it off with two missed four-footers. The next week at Hilton Head, Els recovered with a T-14, and, remarkably, led the statisti- cal category of total feet of putts made. It was the second-best finish Els and Kerr had together in their three years on the PGA Tour, which ended when Els turned 50. Anyone who follows the PGA Tour Champions knows that Els is a dominant presence, with seven wins as of this writing. Els remains a friend, lending his name to one of Kerr’s bever- ages, Els Iced Coffee. “You know, I was made to be a tour caddie,” Kerr says wistfully. “How can I say it? It’s a sexy job, you know, being inside those ropes with the best in the world, feeling the heat. My own mix of talents matches the job well, especially the big one, coming up with right thing to do and say at the right moments, usually with no time to think about it. After that first hole, I did that all day with Ernie.” The tough campaigner falls quiet for a moment, his eyes welling until two damp streaks roll down his cheeks. “Who knows how much time I have left, but I’m just going to fill it with good stuff,” Kerr says, with extra ebullience. He wants to caddie again. “I’ve got my goal of getting out there again, and I’m good at reaching goals. Like the movie says, ‘Get busy living, or get busy dy- ing.’ For a guy like me, that’s not a hard choice.”
As the round progressed, Kerr’s mind went back to his amateur boxing days, when his coaches would buck him up during tough moments. Now he was the cornerman. “Ernie didn’t say anything, but he got into grind mode, his champion’s pride at stake,” says Kerr. “I just walked with energy and stayed in his ear, speaking with compassion but not overdoing it because anything phony would have set him off, just pumping him up, reinforc- ing that he was Ernie Els and to show these people who he was. I dug deep, and he dug deep. It was hard because he was putting so poorly, but because of how he had come back from that first hole, it was exhilarating.”
All told, Kerr has looped in some 1 000 tournaments including well over 100 majors.
24 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
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