There was a particularly telling revelation from Els in his post-Open press conference. In talking of his 10-year-old son, Ben, who has autism, he said that it was only in the last few years that he had sorted himself out “mentally and emotionally” with regard to the situation: “I’m in a better place than I was.” 
Els and his wife, Liezl, have raised some US$10 million for the Els For Autism Foundation and are shortly to open a centre for autistic children in Florida.
The winner’s thoughts had turned to Ben during the last round.
“I made a lot of putts with Ben in mind. He likes the flight of the ball and the sound of it. He gets excited when I make putts and I wanted to make him really excited.”
Mike Kerr, who is four months into his role as the CEO of the Asian Tour, was understandably proud at having 12 members of the Asian Tour in the field.
In his latest book, Colin Montgomerie has suggested there could be as many as six Asian winners of majors between now and 2020. Kerr nodded at that. He believes the figure is entirely achievable.
“Where the European Tour and the USPGA Tour have it over us,” he volunteered, “is in their long-established history and the fact that they currently have of 50 out of the top 50 players in the world.
“That, though, is going to change ... just look at how Thongchai Jaidee won this year’s Wales Open and Jeev Milkha Singh captured the Scottish Open a week ago.
“Things aren’t going to happen overnight, but the Asian Tour is the fastest-growing tour of them all. At the moment, the growth-rate is 20 per cent per year and, with the economy as it is in our part of the world, things should remain the same for a few years yet.”
