{"id":435820,"date":"2025-07-15T19:42:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=435820"},"modified":"2025-07-15T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:42:01","slug":"ernie-els-will-not-be-returning-to-the-open-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/ernie-els-will-not-be-returning-to-the-open-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernie Els Will Not Be Returning To The Open Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Open just around the corner, all eyes are on the Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 The final major of the year is already gearing up to be quite a show.\u00a0 Jordan Spieth will be coming back after a brief absence due to injury<\/a>.\u00a0 Rickie Fowler is looking to win<\/a> after going so long without a victory.\u00a0 However, like with many other events, there will be some missing faces.\u00a0 That includes two-time Open champion Ernie Els.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Did Ernie Els Withdraw?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Ernie Els didn\u2019t withdraw for any health reason or emergency.\u00a0 However, the reason why he withdrew remains unknown at the time of writing.\u00a0 One can only speculate, as this withdrawal was a bit of a surprise.\u00a0 He just played in the Dick\u2019s Open as part of the PGA Champions.\u00a0 He did pretty well for himself and finished T16, solidly in the top 20.\u00a0 The 60-year-old pro would have been welcomed back onto the field with open arms.\u00a0 Given that he had won the major twice in the past.\u00a0 Once during the 2002 Open Championship in Muirfield, and again in 2012 at Lytham St Annes.\u00a0 Els could have easily reserved a spot for himself if he so chose.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Si Woo Kim Takes Els’ Place<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whenever a player withdraws from a tournament, that means an opportunity for anyone on the alternates list.\u00a0 The RBC Canadian saw multiple players take advantage of the opportunities presented.\u00a0 One was getting ready to leave the sport for a job in financ<\/a>e, and another was down on his luck with the PGA and had previously lost his Tour Card<\/a>.\u00a0 After Jason Day withdrew from the Player Championship, Danny Walker took his place<\/a> while still on the toilet and became one of the start rookies of 2025.\u00a0 Now Si Woo Kim is taking Els’ Place at the British Open.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement of Kim stepping into Els\u2019 place<\/a> was made on Twitter.\u00a0 The four-time PGA Tour winner was originally not going to attend do to 2025 being an off year for the South Korean pro.\u00a0 Although he has played plenty of solid games throughout the year so far, he just had some stiff competition.\u00a0 He even finished T8 at the PGA Championship, so Kim is more than able to hold his own during The Open.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On To The Open<\/span><\/h2>\n

With Ernie Els not attending The Open, the former champion will be missed.\u00a0 He still played a good game in the Dick\u2019s Open and is likely to continue off that momentum after the major is done.\u00a0 As for Si Woo Kim, this is an opportunity for him to start making up for his performance this past year.\u00a0 If the PGA Championship is anything to go by, there is a strong chance that he could get into the top twenty.\u00a0 He could even get to the top ten if he can pull it off.\u00a0 The Open is only a few days away, fans and players alike are eager to see what the tournament has to offer, and to see who will win the last major of 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Mike Cardew \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Open just around the corner, all eyes are on the Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 The final major of the year is already gearing up to be quite a show.\u00a0 Jordan Spieth will be coming back after a brief absence due to injury.\u00a0 Rickie Fowler is looking to win after going so long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":435821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8146,83],"class_list":["post-435820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-ernie-els","tag-the-open-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435822,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435820\/revisions\/435822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}