SA’s pair of real million dollar men

They called him the Rock of Shinnecock but I’m still not sure Retief Goosen got enough credit for winning his second United States Open championship in June.

In golf it was the year of victory, the tiger, the monkey, the goose and, while it might have been big, it was not easy.

Vijay Singh’s name stands for victory and he showed why with nine victories on the US Tour; Tiger Woods finally lost his No1 position on the world rankings and Phil Mickelson got the monkey off his back by winning his first major in the US Masters.

Arguably the finest performance of 2004 was the Goose’s win over a course rendered almost unplayable by the USGA in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills while for Ernie Els it was everything but easy as he had a realistic chance to win all four majors and ended up with none.

Goosen would probably be horrified by the thought of so much attention, but it’s a pity he’s not an American because then he might have been affored the credit I thought he was due rather than having his Open victory written off as some freakish fringe event beside the Phil Mickelson show

While all around him were collapsing and the American crowd were baying for Mickelson, Goosen kept his nerve to give one of the finest exhibitions of holing out, of getting the ball into a position from which he could get it up-and-down, yet seen in the pursuit of a major championship.

It brought him his second US Open in three years, having won the first at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2001, and, as if to underscore his status as one of the very best golfers in the world, he won the Smurfit European Open in Ireland the next time he teed it up in a tournament.

South Africa is certainly blessed to have two such outstanding competitors as Goosen and Els in a global game such as golf and the continued success and aura that surrounds the Nedbank Golf Challenge, the 24th edition of which will be played at Sun City from Thursday, is in no small part down to their immense status.

While Goosen added to his tally of majors Els also moved above Tiger Woods on the world rankings and successfully retained the European Tour’s Volvo Order of Merit title with earnings of €4,061,904 to become the first player to break the €4 million barrier.

Els’ position as No1 in Europe for two successive years follows on Goosen having held the title for the previous two seasons.

In the process Els won both the Heineken Classic and HSBC World Match-play titles for a third successive time while also retaining the Sony Open in Hawaii on the US Tour and winning Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio.

In winning the World Match-play title he wrote his name in the record books as the first player to win the event six times. He also won the WGC-American Express Championship in Ireland and challenged for all four major championship titles.

Indeed, with a bit of luck, he could have walked away with the Grand Slam as he missed out on the British Open championship in a play-off against Todd Hamilton, the US Masters and US PGA by a shot and was in the last group for the US Open, with Goosen, at Shinnecock Hills – eventually having to be satisfied with joining a small group of players who have finished in the top 10 in all four majors in a single year.

Els and Goosen are truly million dollar men, with combined official earnings of an incredible $12,713,587 in 2004 (Els $7,673,956 and Goosen $5,039,631) and what a Nedbank Challenge it would if the last day produces a shoot-out between the two former amateur teammates and opponents who, somewhat incongruously, hail from Primrose and Pietersburg.