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Ernie Els called himself a 65 and shot exactly that to win by one stroke over a bunch of no-names in Qatar. I guess either he likes the big appearance fees or hobnobbing with evil sheiks.

Just because you have not heard of them ,does not make them bad players.Not long ago , you had not heard of half of the European Ryder Cup team , but you know them now!

Maybe Ernie likes playing somewhere other than USA all the time?

BTW last week Ernie finished with an eagle to win, this week two birdies in the last three holes.

But I think it's worth mentioning how Els racks up the victory count over the years as these wattered-down foreign events. Tiger has rarely done it.

Els has won 12 times on the USPGA ,plus three majors. Cheap shots from people who can not spell are wasted on him.

Tiger has won 34 times on the PGA Tour + 8 majors. What's your point? ARE you saying Els' 40 international wins are better then Tiger's 42 wins on the PGA Tour?

I'd hazard to say:

1. The PGA Tour is the best tour in the world

2. The PGA Tour is significantly international in membership

3. European Tour players are recently (last 10-12 years) the best at team-match play events (Ryder Cup)

4. 95% of golf events are not match play or team events

5. By country, I'd break it down as follows in terms of Individual stroke play golfing acumen

30 best golfers:
USA

20 best golfers:
USA

10 best Golfers:
USA

5 best Golfers:
USA with S. Africa a close 2nd

Top 2 Golfers:
South Africa or USA

Top Golfer:
South Africa/USA/Fiji... I think the difference is "wafer thin" (to quote MP) right now and isn't that great?

Dubai and Qatar are "Appearance Fee" windfalls for Ernie. :nodsmiley I don't blame him for playing there but let's not get too excited about the quality of the fields he played against. Professional golf is a business and I'd be willing to bet that Els made a multi-million dollar "business" decision to play those two tournaments.

Took the words out of my mouth.

If Ernie wants too spread the his game good luck to him. If helps more people see one of the top golfers in the world then I'm all all for it. And if anyone was offering what his appearance fee was then I would say most of the worlds top 10 would have went as well

Tiger has played Dubai in the past, no doubt for megabucks.