Mike Cormack

For all of Ernie Els’ great shots, he has an equal amount of poor ones.

The U.S. Open was just the latest major setback for an increasingly frustrated Ernie Els.

He’s a future Hall of Famer with three major championships and 62 world-wide wins to his credit, yet as he heads into the back nine of his career with another close-call in a major now behind him, Ernie Els is in danger of having his defeats overshadow his success.

When the Open Championship at St. Andrews rolls around next month, it'll mark the eighth anniversary of Ernie Els' last win in a major championship.

Just 32 back in the summer of 2002, Els was entering his prime golfing years and with his playoff win at Muirfield that July, he seemed a lock to rack up multiple additional majors before the decade was out.

But while that victory did spur some of the best golf of his career with 11 worldwide wins over the ensuing two years, the years since have brought The Big Easy far more heartache than glory.

- Despite a brilliant final round 67, Phil Mickelson birdies the 18th hole to beat Els by a shot at the 2004 Masters.

- Entering the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open paired with eventual champion Retief Goosen, Els shoots 80 and finishes T9.

- Standing over an uphill, 10-foot birdie putt to win the 2004 Open Championship, Els leaves it short and loses in a playoff to Todd Hamilton.

- Needing a par to tie, birdie to win the 2004 PGA Championship, Els instead bogeys the par-5, 18th hole.

Els has also blown chances in recent years to beat Woods and Mickelson at significant tournaments in Dubai and China respectively, in each case after finding water with his approach shot to the 18th hole.

A year ago while Els was struggling to find some form, Woods took an apparent swipe at him by suggesting he didn't work hard enough while rehabbing a knee injury.

The South African promptly responded with a renewed work ethic in 2010 and it resulted in back-to-back wins earlier this year on the PGA Tour and this past weekend, a serious run at his third U.S. Open title.

But despite a strong start Sunday in which he found himself tied for lead after his third birdie in the opening six holes, Els couldn’t maintain the momentum while arch rivals Mickelson and Woods faltered, going 4-over through holes 9, 10 and 11 to fall behind eventual champion Graeme McDowell.

Even with his mid-round stumble, Els still had an outside chance at a playoff if he could eagle the par-5, 18th. But after a good drive, he wiped his 3-iron approach shot into the front bunker and then failed to get up and down for birdie.

It was a poor shot under pressure and the sting of this latest disappointment was too much for the normally affable Els, who refused to speak to reporters afterwards, opting instead to share his post-round thoughts via the friendly confines of ernieels.com.

Like Greg Norman before him, Els is now covered with so many golfing scars he'd make former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Borje Salming blush.

Should he manage to conceal those scars adequately enough to win at St. Andrews, however, Els can perform some much-needed radical re-constructive surgery on his legacy.

More U.S. Open thoughts

As you might expect, Graeme McDowell’s U.S. Open triumph is being hailed in Europe as a breakthrough win for one its rising stars, while some American golf writers seem to believe, he didn’t win it, but others lost it.

We wonder however how the Yankee press would have received a victory by McDowell’s American contemporaries, Hunter Mahan or Sean O’Hair? The duo has half as many world-wide wins as the Ulsterman, but we doubt many Americans would be questioning their major credentials.

Jenkins returns

Several weeks back we wrote about Dan Jenkins’ (danjenkinsgd) unfortunate experience with Twitter while covering The Masters. Well, can report Mr. Jenkins emerged his Twitter exile during the U.S. Open…without incident.

Quote of the week

Speaking of Twitter, we'll leave the last word of the U.S. Open to Ian Poulter (ianjamespoulter), who following disappointing weekend rounds of 77-78 had this to say: