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Ernie Els reaches remarkable milestone that not even Tiger Woods can claim

March 25, 2019
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Allsport Co.

Ernie Els' solid play in recent months has at least put the Presidents Cup captain on the radar as a possible player in December's event. More immediately, it has allowed him to reach a remarkable milestone that not even opposing captain Tiger Woods can claim.

With a T-7 at the European Tour's Maybank Championship on Sunday, Els became the first player to rack up 300 career top 10s since the inception of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986. Check out this graph from OWGR guru @Nosferatu:

The other names on the list aren't much of a surprise (Jumbo Ozaki dominated the Japan Golf Tour to the tune of 94 wins), but Els' lead over them might be. Vijay Singh, second with 275, recently added to his total with a solo sixth at the Honda Classic, but with all due respect to the Big Fijian, the Big Easy seems pretty safe with this mark.

Then there's a huge drop-off to the 72-year-old Ozaki with 240 followed by Woods at 231. Woods, 43, has the best chance of anyone on this list catching Els, but that seems unlikely with his limited schedule. If he continued to match the seven top 10s he had last season, he'd sill need seven more such seasons just to get to 300.

Of course, Els' place in golf history has long been established. Els has won four majors, is a former World No. 1, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. But 300 top 10s shows just how much great golf the South African has played in his illustrious career. And despite a 50th birthday coming up in October, it appears to be a career he intends to keep adding to.