Ernie Els HEIGHT: 6ft 3in WEIGHT: 210 BIRTH DATE: Oct. 17, 1969 BIRTHPLACE: Johannesburg, South Africa RESIDENCE: Surrey, UK   CAREER SUMMARY 3 MAJORS US Open 1994, 1997 British Open 2002 15 US Tour wins 41 International wins 4 Presidents Cups (96, 98, 00, 03)   US OPEN PROFILE The Big Easy has two US Opens and one Open Championship title to his credit, but it has now been nine years since his victory at Congressional. And although he came desperately close to picking up more majors in 2004, 2005 proved to be a trying year for the South African. At no time did he really threatened in the three Majors he played, and he missed the PGA after suffering a knee injury while at play with his children, undergoing surgery that kept him out of golf until February 2006. The injury kept him from defending his HSBC World Match Play title (which he has held a record six times) and collecting his hat-trick European Tour Order of Merit win. While his knee has since healed, Els is still battling with the mental side of the injury, carding relatively mediocre scores in 2006 for a player of his calibre.   FIVE-YEAR MAJORS RECORD   05 04 03 02 01 US Masters 27 47 2 6 5 US Open 28 15 9 5 24 British Open - 34 2 18 1 US PGA - - 4 5 34     MOST RECENT TOURNAMENTS 4/16/06 Verizon Heritage   T7 5/07/06 Wachovia Championship T38 5/14/06 EDS Byron Nelson Championship T13 6/04/06 Memorial Tournament T68 6/18/06 106th U.S. Open Championship T26