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Only twice in the past six years has the big South African not featured among the top six places. That was in 1999 and 2003.

Els won in 2002, lost a play-off to Tod Hamilton at Royal Troon last year, was joint third at Royal Lytham in 2001 and joint second at St Andrews in 2000.

Royal Troon 2004:
274 Todd Hamilton (won four-hole play-off), Ernie Els
275 Phil Mickelson
278 Lee Westwood
279 Thomas Levet, Davis Love

Sandwich 2003:
283 Ben Curtis
284 Thomas Bjorn, Vijay Singh
285 Davis Love, Tiger Woods
286 Brian Davis, Fredrik Jacobson

Muirfield 2002:
278 Ernie Els (won at first extra hole after four-hole play-off),Thomas Levet, Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington
279 Gary Evans, Padraig Harrington, Shigeki Maruyama

Royal Lytham 2001:
274 David Duval
277 Niclas Fasth
278 Darren Clarke, Ernie Els, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Billy Mayfair, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam

St Andrews 2000:
269 Tiger Woods
277 Thomas Bjorn, Ernie Els
278 Tom Lehman, David Toms
279 Fred Couples

Carnoustie 1999:
290 Paul Lawrie (won four-hole play-off), Justin Leonard, Jean van de Velde
291 Angel Cabrera, Craig Parry
293 Greg Norman

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