It was finally Rory McIlroy’s time, even if it took a little longer than perhaps was necessary.
McIlroy birdied the first playoff hole with a short putt after missing a chance to win in regulation, capturing the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam on Sunday in Augusta, Georgia
“This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” the Northern Irishman said. “I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that — yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.”
McIlroy’s 1-over-par 73 left him tied with England’s Justin Rose, who posted 66 and waited for McIlroy to finish. They both shot 11-under 277 for the week.
Re-playing the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, McIlroy’s approach shot rolled back toward the hole and inside Rose’s ball. After Rose missed a birdie attempt and notched a par, McIlroy didn’t flub another chance for a victory.
He dropped his putter, put his hands on his head and fell prostrate on the green, sobbing.
“There was a lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18th green,” McIlroy said. “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.”
It marked the fifth major championship for McIlroy, and his first since capturing the PGA Championship for the second time in 2014.
McIlroy needed par at No. 18 to win in regulation, but after blasting from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole he rolled a 5-foot par putt too far to the left.
It was a starkly different reaction from when he departed the 18th green following Thursday’s first round, which included a pair of backside double bogeys and dodging the media on the way to the practice area.
Rose spoke briefly to McIlroy after the playoff and later added perspective to what just happened.
“This is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it — someone who achieves the career Grand Slam,” Rose said. “I just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”
The new champion — who gave away his two-shot lead through 54 holes with a double bogey at No. 1 — also recovered from a disastrous stretch on the back nine to birdie the 17th hole for a brief one-stroke lead. McIlroy’s bogey on No. 11, double bogey on No. 13 and bogey on No. 14 appeared to send him on track for another final-round collapse at a major.
McIlroy said sending his ball into the creek on a wedge shot on the par-5 13th could have doomed his chances.
“I did a really good job of bouncing back from that,” he said.
McIlroy recovered for a birdie on the par-5 15th hole by drawing a tremendous second shot around a tree, over a water hazard and to 6 feet of the pin, where he two-putted for birdie.
Then he stuck his approach on No. 17 and sank the putt to take the lead.
Rose, seeking his first Masters title, had six birdies and two bogeys across the last eight holes, finishing with a 20-foot birdie putt.
“To make the putt on 18, the one you dream about as a kid, to obviously give myself an opportunity and a chance was an unbelievable feeling,” Rose said.
Rose was the leader after the first and second rounds, and after a tough 75 on Saturday he made a major final-round push. He had only four pars on his card — countering four bogeys with 10 birdies.
Patrick Reed (69 on Sunday) was third at 9 under. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler (69) placed fourth at 8 under, giving him four consecutive top-10 finishes at the Masters.
“I was just proud of the way we hung in there and put up a good fight,” Scheffler said.
Bryson DeChambeau, who figured to be McIlroy’s biggest threat and in the final pairing, took the lead after the second hole before stalling with back-to-back bogeys and a string of pars to skid off the path. By the time he double-bogeyed No. 11, he was tied for ninth and seventh strokes back.
DeChambeau’s 75 left him at 7 under, tied for fifth place with South Korea’s Sungjae Im (69).
DeChambeau said his troubles began with a putt on the third hole that scooted well beyond the cup.
“There’s no way that putt goes that far by,” he said. “I just didn’t realize how firm and fast it could get out here. It’s great experience. Won’t let that happen again.”
Rory McIlroy wins Masters in dramatic fashion, completes career Slam
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Rory McIlroy wins Masters in dramatic fashion, completes career Slam
- It marked the fifth major championship for McIlroy, and his first since capturing the PGA Championship for the second time in 2014
Is the world of sports ready for the Enhanced Games?
- Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed spoke to Arab News about investing in the controversial competition that does away with testing for performance-enhancing substances
In modern parlance, it is what techies would call a “disruptor,” to say the least.
It will take a lot more, however, for sporting fans of earlier generations to get their heads around the concept of the Enhanced Games, which were officially announced on Wednesday and will take place next year in Las Vegas.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al-Saud, founder and CEO of KBW Ventures and chairman of the Kingdom’s Sports For All Federation, is the region’s first, and to date only, investor in the tournament that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subjected to testing.
Prince Khaled — nicknamed the “Tech Prince” for his investments in startups, among many other fields — is bullish about the potential of the Enhanced Games when asked if the sports world is ready for such a controversial step.
“Look, I like to think of myself as a progressive investor, venture capital typically backs very nascent ideas,” he told Arab News.
“You are always looking for the big idea, the society-changing concept. Then, you attempt to predict and really visualize how and where and when that big idea will prove relevant to the wider world.
“As someone who is pretty involved in sports on both personal and business levels, I think there is a segment of the world who would like to push the limits of human potential,” Prince Khaled said.
“How fast? How far? How long? All questions in sport that someone like me is curious about, and very eager to see. I want to see real-world application, and a competitive approach.”
He accepts that this idea, with all the ethical points and counterpoints it evokes, might take a long time to be accepted in mainstream sports.
“Is the world ready? The world wasn’t ready for most fresh concepts. At the most basic level people weren’t even ready for ride-hailing, now it is considered a must for many all over the world, he said.
“So, whether it is transportation or AI or art or biotechnology or in this case, sport and biohacking, the world is usually not ready for things that have not been done before. That doesn’t mean they should never be done.
“Elite athletes who have never been granted the opportunity to experiment with body autonomy and enhancement exploration can now sign up if they so choose,” said Prince Khaled.
“If you want to talk sports in specific, I also think the world wasn’t ready for MMA, but it’s now one of the biggest crowd draws out there.”
The reaction from the sports community at large has, unsurprisingly, been a negative one.
In February of last year, a joint statement issued by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency condemning the games was supported by The International Fair Play Committee.
“Well, it is voluntary, and it’s like for like. The Games is for those who choose to enroll and compete with enhancements. It is ethical; the ethics rests in equality, safety and transparency.
“There is a disclosure protocol, and everyone knows that everyone else is applying the same types of enhancements and experimenting with biohacking.
“I don’t think I have to justify investing in what I see as a form of competitive sport,” he added. “As long as everyone involved is aware, then it is fair and transparent.”
Prince Khaled is known to be the Middle East North Africa face of venture capital, with investments across artificial intelligence, biotechnology, agricultural and food technology, as well as in the sports-adjacent sector, robotics and broadcast technologies.
One of his biotechnology bets, Colossal Biosciences, recently made headlines with its reported $10.2 billion valuation.
“I met the co-founder of Enhanced Games (Aron D’Souza) at a private conclave staged by FII (Future Investment Initiative) last year in Riyadh. This was my first exposure to the idea of the Enhanced Games.
“It was a closed-door working group held to discuss democratizing access to healthy aging solutions. Some of the foremost figures were present; from stakeholders from the Saudi Health in All Policies committee, to scientists, to entrepreneurs and investors.”
“I do think the Enhanced Games can play an important role here; how better to analyze the effects of enhancement than on elite athletes? People who are in the best possible shape physically that they can be naturally, and then build on that,” he said.
“When your baseline is elite athlete level, then we can really see what biohacking and these enhancements can do.
“I do think it is ethical, because there is no subjectivity and no varying board rules, and because it is upfront and clear about the idea that everyone is competing with their own approach to enhancement.”
Certainly the games seem to appeal to athletes either coming to the end of their careers or ones for whom Olympic and international success remain out of reach. Established figures, including Australian swimming coach Brett Hawke, have backed the idea.
At the age of 31, four-time Olympic Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev will take part in the Enhanced Games, having received a $1 million prize for breaking the long-standing 50-meter freestyle world record with a time of 20.89 seconds.
“Being the first to break a world record at the Enhanced Games means a lot to me. I’m proud to lead the way,” said the athlete who specialized in sprint and butterfly events, and earned a silver in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championship in South Korea.
However, having not consistently been at the top of the sport, he sees these Games as an opportunity to make up for missed opportunities.
“One year at the Enhanced Games could earn me more than six Olympic cycles combined,” Gkolomeev told Arab News. “I’ve never had this kind of support; doctors, nutritionists, therapists, all working to make me better.”
Prince Khaled accepts that participation will depend entirely on the choices of the individual athletes and their particular circumstances.
“There are athletes who are not going to want to join, and then there are those who will be the early adopters,” he said. “At launch, there is already a record-breaker, who just won a million dollars.
“Is this going to make everyone rush to sign up? No, but this will definitely spark some honest and much-needed discussions about the irregularities between sporting rules and different governing bodies, and the allegations of unfair treatment levied against some athletes over others.”
“Democratizing access to aging solutions is what first interested me in the Games, and then I began to think of the implications on sport.
“I’m sure you know about the politics involved when deciding which athletes were accused of using enhancements, in several instances countries felt their athletes were unfairly targeted.
“At the Enhanced Games, this political maneuvering is completely removed from the equation. I bet if you ask the athletes that felt they were wrongly maligned, they would be pretty quick to agree that politics played a role.”
In its statement last year, the International Fair Play Committee said the Games “represent a potentially catastrophic healthcare risk” to the athletes.
The Enhanced Games’ website meanwhile promises medical vigilance and safe participation for the athletes. Critics will rightly question just where the line is drawn in terms of the use of performance-enhancing substances.
“To my knowledge, there are two cohorts, one is enhanced with their own resources and medical guidance, and one cohort that is officially under the Enhanced Games,” said Prince Khaled.
“For the second cohort, there is a full treatment protocol lined up for athletes.
“They will definitely have better medical guidance and access to the latest in monitoring methodologies and technologies with the Enhanced Games than they have ever had in their professional sporting careers.”
“Everyone knows one of the biggest barriers to elite athletics is cost,” he added. “The Enhanced Games is bringing the best medical and scientific protocols and giving the athletes access to that.
“To bring this conversation full circle, this is something enabled by funding, and in venture capital, funding is, most of the time, allocated to groundbreaking entities and ideas.”
Prince Khaled said he is a “cautious believer in biohacking” which is, simply stated, the optimization of nutrition to enhance energy, cognitive function, and overall health and well-being.
“I think longevity medicine and healthspan and various other biotechnology sectors are burgeoning for a reason.
“KBW Ventures is invested in biotechnology, health tech, medtech, and with the Enhanced Games, I consider it kind of an ultimate biohacking opportunity for elite athletes,” he said.
“I expect that so much valuable scientific data on reversing biological age, and repair and so much more is going to come out of the Enhanced Games,” Prince Khaled added.
“On a separate note, the athletes that participate in the Games have to undergo what is termed health testing, ensuring that they are fit to compete. They also need to disclose everything that they are using to enhance their performance.”
At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, the world of athletics was shaken to its core when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of the gold medal he had won with a world record time of 9.79 seconds.
Author Richard Moore’s “The Dirtiest Race in History” remains a seminal read on the events of Sept. 24, 1988. Since then, many other athletes have been banned from participating, or stripped of medals, for similar offences with increasingly less fanfare and shock.
But is the world ready now to consign such considerations to history?
The clock is now ticking toward the first Enhanced Game. It remains a tough, if not almost impossible sell, for a sporting community brought up on the concepts of fair play and the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.
Whether the world is ready for these Games, and how the future will judge these developments, remain open questions.
Choke or comeback? Pacers rally late, stun Knicks in OT
- Reggie Miller famously flashed the gesture toward Knicks superfan Spike Lee while leading a Pacers comeback in a playoff game in 1994
Tyrese Haliburton was a bit premature after he mimicked Hall of Famer Reggie Miller’s infamous “choke” sign at Madison Square Garden.
Nevertheless, Haliburton and his Indiana Pacers teammates made certain the gesture didn’t come back to haunt them in a 138-135 victory in overtime over the New York Knicks on Wednesday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Haliburton scored 31 points and Aaron Nesmith added 30, highlighting an 8-for-9 performance from 3-point range by making five treys during the final 3 1/2 minutes of regulation. That surge allowed the fourth-seeded Pacers to overcome a 14-point deficit in the final 2:39 of the fourth quarter.
“It’s unreal,” Nesmith said of his sizzling shooting. “It’s probably the best feeling in the world for me. I love it when that basket feels like an ocean and anything you toss up, you feel like it’s going to go in. It’s so much fun.”
Haliburton appeared to win it following a friendly carom off the rim on an apparent 3-pointer at the buzzer, only for replays to show that his toe was on the line. That made it a 2-pointer and forced overtime.
When he thought the game was over, Haliburton made the choke sign in the direction of the Knicks’ bench.
“I thought it was a 3. I tried to hit the celly. It didn’t work. But we finished it in overtime,” Haliburton said.
Miller famously flashed the gesture toward Knicks superfan Spike Lee while leading a Pacers comeback in a playoff game in 1994.
The third-seeded Knicks will look to bounce back in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series on Friday in New York.
“In the playoffs, when you win it’s the best thing ever. When you lose it’s the worst thing ever,” said Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who finished with 43 points.
“The best way to deal with all of that is to stay level-headed. Making sure we have each other’s backs.”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle also kept it in perspective after the game.
“It’s a long series. We’re not gonna get too excited about this,” he said. “We’ve got things to clean up. They’ve got things to clean up. Game 2’s gonna be another war.”
Andrew Nembhard sank a 3-pointer and two layups in OT, the last lay-in giving Indiana a 136-135 lead with 26.7 seconds to play. An attempted pass to Brunson deflected off his fingers and out of bounds, and former Knick Obi Toppin’s dunk extended the advantage to three with 10.9 seconds left.
Brunson and teammate Karl-Anthony Towns misfired on 3-point attempts in the final moments.
Pascal Siakam scored 17 points, Nembhard finished with 15 and Myles Turner added 14 for the Pacers. Haliburton handed out 11 assists.
Towns collected 35 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks.
Towns sank 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range, a big improvement after he made just 3 of 19 attempts from beyond the arc in New York’s six-game series victory over the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals.
Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby each scored 16 points in the loss.
Brunson committed his fifth foul with 10:05 remaining in the fourth quarter and retreated to the bench after T.J. McConnell made a free throw to pull Indiana within 94-92.
New York, however, went on a 14-0 run in Brunson’s absence, with Anunoby draining a 3-pointer and a short jumper to ignite the spurt. The Pacers did themselves no favors by fouling Miles McBride and Towns on 3-point attempts, with the duo combining to make 5 of 6 free throws.
“I feel like our intensity dropped,” said New York’s Josh Hart, who amassed eight points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. “We started playing slower. Playing more into their hands.”
Dustin Poirier to close UFC career with Max Holloway trilogy title fight
- Both fighters are coming off losses in title fights
Louisiana native Dustin Poirier is locked for a UFC BMF title fight in his home state to conclude his career, as New Orleans will host Poirier’s battle with title-holder Max Holloway to highlight the July 19 card at the Smoothie King Center.
This will be the third battle between the lightweight combatants, the 36-year-old Poirier, who hails from Lafayette, Louisiana, taking the first two contests.
Both fighters are coming off losses in title fights, however. Poirier (30-9) submitted to Islam Makhachev last June, while the 33-year-old Holloway (26-8) lost in knockout fashion to Ilia Topuria in October.
“For Dustin Poirier to be able to finish his remarkable UFC career in New Orleans is special,” UFC executive vice president Peter Dropick said in a news release. “Thank you to the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, New Orleans & Company and Smoothie King Center for helping us make this happen.
“It’s been 10 years since we’ve held an event in New Orleans, we know the fans are ready for us to be back!“
The Octagon will also play host to ranked middleweights No 10 Marvin Vettori (19-8-1) and No. 11 Brendan Allen (24-7), who will do battle for the first time in an official capacity at UFC 318.
The two were slated to fight at UFC Vegas 90 last April, though Vettori pulled out. A few months later, the pair squared off (unofficially) in a brawl at a Florida casino.
Their ranked billing remains hotly anticipated.
The rest of the lineup includes newly announced fights between Kyler Phillips (12-3) and Vinicius Oliveira (22-3) at the bantamweight level, Jimmy Crute (12-4-2) facing Marcin Prachnio (17-8) in light heavyweight and Carli Judice (4-2) battling Nicolle Caliari (8-3) at women’s fly.
Other fights include:
--No. 7 Amanda Ribas vs. No. 10 Tabatha Ricci in strawweight
--Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson in welterweight
--Adam Fuitt vs. Islam Dulatov in welterweight
--Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferreira in middleweight
Gilgeous-Alexander voted as NBA’s MVP, continuing run of international players winning the award
- It’s now seven straight years that a player born outside the US won MVP, extending the longest such streak in league history
- He becomes the second Canadian to win MVP; Steve Nash won it twice
NEW YORK: The case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was simple. He’s the best player on an Oklahoma City Thunder team that had the best record this season and set a league mark for margin of victory. If that wasn’t enough, he also won the scoring title.
That’s an MVP year.
Gilgeous-Alexander was announced Wednesday as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, his first time winning the award. It’s now seven straight years that a player born outside the US won MVP, extending the longest such streak in league history.
And when it happened, Gilgeous-Alexander said a life of moments — getting cut, traded, overlooked, celebrating, the wins, the good times — all flooded into his mind.
“I don’t think there’s enough emphasis on how much off the court influences on the court,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And once I became better off the court my career started to skyrocket. It’s no coincidence.”
It ultimately was a two-person race. Gilgeous-Alexander got 71 first-place votes and 29 second-place votes; Denver’s Nikola Jokic got the other 29 first-place votes and the other 71 second-place votes.
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo was third, getting 88 of the 100 possible third-place votes.
Gilgeous-Alexander — the No. 11 pick in the 2018 draft — averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds per game this season, leading the Thunder to a 68-14 record. The Thunder outscored teams by 12.9 points per game, the biggest margin in league history.
He becomes the second Canadian to win MVP; Steve Nash won it twice.
“He set the foundation,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Nash. “He was the first Canadian basketball player I knew of. And without seeing guys go to the NBA from Canada, it wouldn’t have been as much of a dream as it was for us as kids growing up. So, to be in a conversation with a guy like that and what he has meant to not only basketball but to the country of Canada, it’s special.”
And Gilgeous-Alexander is the first guard to win MVP since James Harden in 2018.
“His value is his confidence,” Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams said of Gilgeous-Alexander, his Thunder teammate for the last five seasons. “His confidence that he has in himself and the confidence that he instills in every one of his teammates, including the coaches.”
Jokic — a winner of three of the last four MVP awards — was second, despite a season for the ages. He averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game, the first center to average a triple-double and the first player since all those stats were tracked to finish in the NBA’s top three in all three of those categories.
It was the sixth instance of a player finishing a season averaging a triple-double — at least 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game. Russell Westbrook did it four times and Oscar Robertson once, but only one of those triple-double seasons led to an MVP win.
“He’s a special player,” Jokic said of Gilgeous-Alexander earlier this week when the Thunder eliminated the Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. “His shot selection, his shot capability ... he’s always there. He’s a special player.”
Antetokounmpo, who averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game, was third. He started this run of international players winning MVP; Antetokounmpo, of Greek and Nigerian descent, won in 2019 and 2020.
Jokic, a Serbian, won in 2021, 2022 and 2024. And Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon but since became a US citizen, won the award in 2023.
Now, it’s Gilgeous-Alexander — a son of Ontario, where hockey reigns — carrying the MVP flag. He was fifth in the voting two years ago, second behind Jokic last year, and used being so close to the award as fuel this season.
“There are voters every year. That will never change,” Gilgeous-Alexander said on TNT during the broadcast when the results were revealed. “And last year, all it meant was that more people thought I shouldn’t have won than should have won. This year I wanted to change the narrative and have it flipped. I think I did a good job of that.”
Boston’s Jayson Tatum was fourth, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell was fifth and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James was sixth — the 20th time in his 22-year career that he got some MVP votes.
Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards tied for seventh, Golden State’s Stephen Curry was ninth and three players — the Los Angeles Clippers’ Harden, New York’s Jalen Brunson and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley — tied for 10th.
The MVP award, like most other NBA honors, was voted on by a global panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who cover the league and cast ballots shortly before the start of the playoffs.
The other awards that were part of that voting process and have already been unveiled: Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson winning coach of the year, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels winning most improved player, San Antonio’s Stephon Castle winning rookie of the year, Cleveland’s Evan Mobley winning defensive player of the year, New York’s Jalen Brunson winning clutch player of the year and Boston’s Payton Pritchard winning sixth man of the year.
Other awards announced by the league since the end of the regular season: Golden State’s Stephen Curry won the Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year award, Warriors teammate Draymond Green won the hustle award, Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti won executive of the year and Boston’s Jrue Holiday won the sportsmanship award for the second time in his career as well as the league’s social justice award.
The award came at a price for Gilgeous-Alexander, who is in line for an extension that will easily top $300 million and could even see him make about $1 million per regular-season game in 2030-31 and 2031-32.
He promised teammates watches if he won the MVP; those guys have those watches now, and they deserve all that and more, he said.
“This is nothing compared to what they’ve been to me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I would rather have the MVP over a Rolex every day of the week and without them, I wouldn’t have the MVP.”
Ernie Els, Retief Goosen join South African president in White House meeting with Trump
- Els and Retief Goosen, both Hall of Fame players who have combined to win six US Open titles, were part of the delegation with President Cyril Ramaphosa
- Both were in Washington for the Senior PGA Championship, which starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club
- Trump had already cut all US assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the US as refugees
WASHINGTON: Ernie Els went to Washington to try to win another senior major and wound up in the White House on Wednesday at the invitation of South Africa’s president, who is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of systematic killing of white farmers in the country.
Els and Retief Goosen, both Hall of Fame players who have combined to win six US Open titles, were part of the delegation with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Trump had already cut all US assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the US as refugees as he pressed the case that a “genocide” is underway in the country.
He has launched a series of accusations at South Africa’s Black-led government, claiming it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted for their race, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
Trump, who developed high-end golf courses before entering politics, is at ease among some of the game’s greats from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods. He first played golf with Els, who lives in south Florida, eight years ago.
“When I spoke to you, you said, ‘Yes, come along and bring Gary Player and Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.’ I brought the two of them,” Ramaphosa said.
He said he spoke with Player, who turns 90 in November, and Player said he was getting in on years but wished them luck in the discussion. Trump awarded Player the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 7, 2021, one day after pro-Trump rioters attacked the White House.
“We’re proud South Africans,” Els said when Trump asked him to speak. “We want to see things get better in our home country. That’s the bottom line. It’s been 35 years since the transition (from apartheid).
“I know there’s a lot of anger through the transition, a lot of stuff happening in apartheid days. We grew up in the apartheid era. But I don’t think two wrongs make a right.”
Els said Nelson Mandela “didn’t come out with hatred” when he was freed after 27 years in prison, instead working to unify South Africa through sport after being elected president in 1994. He cited the World Cup of Rugby in 1995, winning the African Nations in soccer and a few golf majors.
Els won four majors, two each at the US Open and British Open. Goosen, who recovered from being struck by lightning, won two US Opens.
Both were in Washington for the Senior PGA Championship, which starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club across the Potomac River in Bethesda, Maryland.
“What I’m trying to say is this has been a long time coming. That’s why we really wanted to meet you and see our way forward,” Els said. “We still want to see our country flourish. ... There’s a lot of co-existence going on, but we need the US to push this thing through.”
Goosen, whose father was a property developer and a part-time farmer, grew up in what now is Polokwane. He said his brother is still running the farm but “it’s a constant battle with ... them trying to burn the farm down to chase you away.”
“It is a concern to try to make a living as a farmer,” he said.
Els, known as the “Big Easy” for his fluid swing, first played golf with Trump in 2017 during his first term in office.
“We didn’t talk politics because I’m not a man who can cast a vote,” Els told The Associated Press that year. “Whether you agree or not, I felt it was a duty to play with the president when you get the call. It’s basically honoring what the United States has done for me and my family.”
