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FULLY-eXeMPt PLAYeRSernie els (Continued)Section Player BiograPhies2tive birdies to overtake David toms...Earned his third Worldgolf championships top 10 of the season when he t6 at theHSBc champions in Sheshan, china.cAReeR HiGHLiGHtS:2009: Finished 16th in the FedExcup standings, marking histhird top 20 finish in the FedExcup...His seven top-10 finisheswere the most since he had eight in 2006...making hiseighth career start at the mercedes-Benz championship,posted his sixth top-10 finish there with a t6 to start theseason...reached quarterfinals of accenture match playchampionship, losing to Stewart cink, 2 and 1, to finish t5...t8 at the memorial tournament, finishing 5-under for thetournament...Earned his 12th top-10 finish (t8) in his 18thconsecutive appearance at the British open...Finished t6 atthe pga championship. Was 5-under for the tournament inhis third round until finishing with three consecutivebogeys...Was 4-over through four holes at the Barclaysbefore turning it around to post a t2 for his best finish of theseason and his sixth top-10 in 2009, and back-to-back top-10s for the first time on tour since the pga championshipand the Barclays in 2007. advanced 36 spots in theFedExcup standings to No. 11...Finished ninth at tHE tourchampionship to notch his seventh top-10 finish in 14career starts at East Lake gc...make sixth appearance onthe International team in the presidents cup...runner-up atthe World golf championships-HSBc champions in china inNovember, one stroke behind phil mickelson. 2008: one ofthe world’s true global golfers—with more than 50 worldwidecareer victories—captured his first pga tour victoryin 3 years, 4 months, 29 days, winning the Honda classic byone stroke over Luke Donald. Began the final round threestrokes behind Donald, matt Jones and mark calcavecchiaand fired a final-round 67 to complete the biggest comebackof his career. Victory was the 16th of his pga tour career.Was tied with calcavecchia until the 15th hole whencalcavecchia made double bogey from a greenside bunker.Donald just missed a birdie chip to tie on the final hole...recorded his best career finish in 15 starts at tHE pLaYErSwith a t6. carded one score of double bogey or worse eachday and wound up six strokes shy of eventual championSergio garcia...opened with a 10-over 80 at the Britishopen, his worst round ever at the event, but 1-under 69sduring the second and fourth rounds led to a t7 finish. Itwas his 11th top-10 finish at the British open in 18 consecutivestarts...Finished t3 at the Deutsche Bankchampionship with three rounds in the 60s...His fifth top-10of the season was a t6 at tHE tour championship, hissixth top-10 at the event in 13 career starts. He ended theseason 13th in FedExcup points. 2007: played in three of thefour pga tour playoffs for the FedExcup events and finished19th in the standings...Won the South africanairways open in December 2006...Ended his longest consecutivecuts made streak at 46 after missing the cut at themasters...opened with rounds of 65-65 at the VerizonHeritage en route to finishing second to eventual winnerBoo Weekley, who chipped in for par on the final two holes.Nearly holed his approach shot to the par-4 18th, whichwould have forced a playoff. this marked Els’ seventh top-10 finish in nine starts at the Verizon Heritage...cardedthree birdies and no bogeys for a 33 on the front nine to playhimself into contention in the final round of the British openat carnoustie, but finished t4 after making two bogeys onthe back nine. 11th top-10 in 17 career British open starts...third at the pga championship, finishing with a 66. Itmarked the sixth time in his career that he has recordedback-to-back top-five finishes at major championships.Notched 3-2-0 record in fifth presidents cup appearance forInternational squad...Won a record seventh HSBc Worldmatch play championship in mid-october at the Wentworthclub in Surrey, England, beating u.S. open champion angelcabrera 6 and 4 in the final on a West course he redesignedin 2005. previously won the event in 1994-96 and 2002-04.Victory moved him to first in the European tour order ofmerit. He finished second to Justin rose on the seasonlonglist. 2006: posted eight top-10s and qualified for tHEtour championship in first full season back after 2005knee injury...returned from knee injury in January at theSouth african airways open championship, where he finishedsecond to countryman retief goosen...Defendingchampion of the Dubai Desert classic lost in a one-holeplayoff to tiger Woods. 2005: Season cut short in July whenhe sustained a left knee injury during a sailing holiday in themediterranean the week after the British open at St.andrews. required surgery for a ruptured anterior cruciateligament…Finished t5 at season-opening mercedeschampionships. came to 72nd hole with an opportunity toforce a playoff with Stuart appleby with a birdie on thepar-5 18th, but hit tee shot out of bounds and made bogeyto finish two behind appleby...one week later, looking towin third straight Sony open in Hawaii, tied course recordwith a 8-under-par 62 in final round to finish second, onebehind Vijay Singh...opened the pga tour season withthree consecutive top-10s for just the second time in his 12years on tour after finishing t6 at the Buick Invitational…used an eagle on the 72nd hole to defeat miguel angelJimenez by one stroke at the European tour’s Dubai Desertclassic in early march...Following week, fired closing 66 tocome from five strokes back and win the Qatar masters bya stroke over Sweden’s Henrik Stenson on the Europeantour...For fourth consecutive season, picked up at leastthree wins by capturing his third at the BmW asian open.Fired a 7-under-par 65 to cruise to a 13-stroke victory andcompleted 72 holes in a tournament-record 26-under-par262 at Shanghai’s tomson gc. 2004: Season included threetour victories and top-10 finishes in all four majors, includingnear-misses at the masters and British open. alsocaptured two events on the European tour and won secondconsecutive European tour order of merit…Holed a 30-footbirdie putt on the third playoff hole to beat Harrison Frazarfor 13th career tour victory at the Sony open in Hawaii…Finished runner-up to phil mickelson at the masters for fifthstraight top-10 in augusta, sixth overall. after opening70-72-71, started the final round three back of mickelsonand co-leader chris Dimarco. took the lead after eagle-3 onNo. 8 and another eagle-3 on No. 13 and posted final-round5-under-par 67 to take the clubhouse lead at 8-under-par280. Edged by one when mickelson holed 18-foot putt on72nd hole...Won the memorial tournament with a pair of66s on the weekend for a four-stoke victory over Fredcouples. Needed just 100 putts to win his second tournamentof the season. overtook Vijay Singh for second in theofficial World golf ranking...posted his seventh top-10 finishin 12 u.S. open appearances with a t9 at ShinnecockHills gc...Finished as the runner-up for the second time in amajor during the season, losing to todd Hamilton in a fourholeplayoff at the British open. Birdied two of the last threeholes and tied Hamilton on the 72nd hole when Hamiltonbogeyed the hole. Hamilton posted four pars to Els’ threepars and a bogey (17th hole) to win the playoff. recorded ahole-in-one during first round on the “postage Stamp,” thepar-3 eighth hole by using a wedge from 123 yards. Becamethe sixth player in tournament history to post four rounds inthe 60s and did it for the second time (1993)...Fourth top-10in a major was a t4 at the pga championship…added histhird win on the pga tour and first in a World golfchampionships event at the american Expresschampionship in Ireland. Led by two strokes after the secondand third rounds and defeated thomas Bjorn by a strokeafter a final-round 69. moved back into second, past tigerWoods, in the official World golf ranking...two weekslater, won the HSBc World match play title on the Europeantour for a record sixth time. on his 35th birthday, beat LeeWestwood, 2 and 1…after t10 finish at tHE tourchampionship, dropped to No. 3 in official World golfranking behind Woods. 2003: played 17 tour and nineEuropean tour events. In addition to winning twice on tourin Hawaii and finishing ninth on the tour’s money list,compiled four official European tour wins (in australia,austria and Scotland) and won the European tour order ofmerit. also won his fifth career HSBc World match playchampionship, a European tour-approved special event.one of three players (along with mike Weir and Kennyperry) that posted three top-10s in majors - t6 at masters,t5 at u.S. open and t5 at pga championship…Became thefirst player since Steve Jones in 1989 to capture the firsttwo tournaments of the season when he won the mercedeschampionships and Sony open in Hawaii in early January.only Byron Nelson (1946), Lloyd mangrum (1953), Johnnymiller (1974, three events; and 1975), gil morgan (1983),Jones and Els have accomplished that among modern-dayplayers...captured season-opening mercedeschampionships in record fashion, finishing at 31-under-par261. total in relation to par broke mark calcavecchia’s72-hole tournament tour record of 28-under set at the2001 phoenix open. Eight-stroke margin of victory over K.J.choi and rocco mediate was largest on tour sincecalcavecchia’s eight-stroke phoenix victory in 2001...Sank a43-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole, the second playoff hole,to beat aaron Baddeley at the Sony open in Hawaii. Bothfinished at 16-under after Baddeley birdied the 72nd hole...played in homeland of South africa at the presidents cup,competing for the International team. 2002: a year toremember with the birth of a son and third career majorvictory at the British open...Won four official events worldwide,including twice on tour, solidifying No. 3 officialWorld golf ranking. Won the Heineken classic inmelbourne, australia on the European tour by five strokesfor his ninth European tour victory...collected first tourvictory since 2000 at the genuity championship. rounds of66-67-66 gave him an eight-stroke lead with 18 holes toplay. Final-round 72 earned a two-stroke victory over tigerWoods...Won again the following week at the Dubai Desertclassic, becoming the first multiple winner in the tournament’s14-year history after posting all four rounds in the60s…Earned third career major victory at the 131st Britishopen at muirfield with scores of 70-66-72-70—278. tiedfor the lead with Shigeki maruyama, padraig Harrington,Duffy Waldorf and Bob tway after 36 holes at 6-under. Held54-hole lead at 5-under, two strokes ahead of SorenHansen. after losing a three-shot lead on the back nine onSunday, survived a playoff with thomas Levet, SteveElkington and Stuart appleby to earn the claret Jug. afterparring his way through the four-hole playoff, made a parout of the greenside bunker on the first hole of suddendeath against Levet. With his right foot anchored on the topof a bunker left of the 18th green, blasted out to 5 feet andmade the putt to secure the victory. 2001: In a year full ofstreaks, didn’t win for the first time since joining tour in1994...ranked in top 30 for seventh time in eight years with1998 the only year he failed to qualify for tHE tourchampionship...Best chance to win was a playoff loss attHE tour championship. closed with 68 to tie eventualwinner mike Weir, Sergio garcia and David toms at14-under 270...completed year in November by teamingwith retief goosen to win World cup in Japan. Els andgoosen beat three others teams, including americans tigerWoods and David Duval, in a playoff.. 2000: Victory at theINtErNatIoNaL extended to seven years his string ofyears with tour wins. Defeated phil mickelson by fourpoints to earn his eighth tour title. 48 points, undermodified Stableford scoring system, tied tournament recordmickelson set in 1997...also finished second five times,most since Jack Nicklaus and arnold palmer in 1964 (six).record is 13 by Harold (Jug) mcSpaden (1945). Began withplayoff loss to tiger Woods at mercedes championshipsand then had seconds at masters, u.S. open and Britishopen. First player to finish second in three consecutivemajors in same season. Jack Nicklaus (1964) was previousplayer to have three majors’ runners-up in same year. 1999:Earned two-stroke victory over ted tryba, tiger Woods andDavis Love III at Nissan open. 1998: claimed sixth careertour victory at Bay Hill. rains forced 36-hole finish Sundayand third-round 65 vaulted him to six-stroke lead while closing73 good for four-stroke win...after t16 at masters,ranked No.1 in world for several weeks...member of victoriouspresidents cup team in 1998 with a 3-1-1 individualrecord. 1997: Became first international player since alexSmith (1906 and 1910) to win u.S. open more than oncewith victory at congressional cc. trailed tom Lehman byone stroke after 36 holes and by two after 54. Final-round69, including decisive par on 71st hole, secured victory byone stroke over colin montgomerie...Successfully defendedBuick classic title the following week in wire-to-wire fashion.First repeat wire-to-wire winner since tom Watsonwon tournament of champions in 1979-80. 1996: WonBuick classic for third tour title...Won third consecutive2-56 PGA TOUR 2011 Guidepgatour.com