The Open 2012: Fierce dedication behind the improbable return of 'The Big Easy" Ernie Els But no one expected this. Not even his most fervent disciples could have dared argue that he had still had it within him to win an Open from five shots back on Sunday, but perhaps they should have consulted the man himself. Els had forecast before this tournament began that "something special" could happen, and he elicited nothing more than gentle amusement among commentators. This was a man at an impasse in his career, having missed the cut in four of his last seven majors. He had failed to qualify for the Masters for the first time in 20 years. Take a look, though, at who is laughing now. Els can boast not simply of a five-year exemption into the majors but of a rich and unexpected renaissance in the autumn of his playing days. The transition has not come about by accident; indeed, there is scarcely a golfer on the circuit with a fiercer dedication to self-improvement. With a deft combination of the old and the new, he has completed the most extraordinary recovery. Els has enlisted the assistance of Claude Harmon, son of Butch, to derive maximum benefit from his swing's flawless mechanics. He has turned to Dr Sherylle Calder, from the Sports Science Institute of Chicago, to help his composure on the greens and to wean him off his dependence on the belly putter. But he has also reinstated more familiar members of his entourage, not least long-time caddie Ricky Roberts. It was in his putting that the starkest difference was seen. In Tampa in March, he had looked a husk of his affable self after missing a four-footer to prevail at the Transitions Championship. on Sunday evening he drained a 12-footer on the 18th green to win the Open. This was the Els of yore, blessed with serenity under strain, victorious at US Opens in the Nineties. His back nine of 32, featuring four birdies, was possibly the best he had ever played. As he collected a fourth major title to set him alongside Phil Mickelson among the game's greats, one could but marvel that he had won the first as long ago as 1994. Eighteen years of major-winning form represented Nicklaus-esque longevity. When he headed to the putting green, in anticipation of a play-off with Scott, Els said: "I thought, 'I'll probably be disappointed again." So many times I have waited on a play-off. You hope that you can win outright. Suddenly, and faintly miraculously, his wish was granted. "It's the nature of the beast," he reflected. You win, you lose, and it was my time again. I always believed I had another one in me. I guess I just proved it. That he emphatically did.