Els: If I can win a major in my 40s, Tiger Woods can

Ernie Els is still getting it done in his late 40s. (Getty Images)

Tiger Woods will make his season debut next week at the Farmers Insurance Open, kicking off a stretch of four planned starts in a five-week span. He’ll play a few more times as a tune-up for the Masters, where he hopes to put on the green jacket for a fifth time and win his first major since 2008.

Some would see there’s not a snowball’s chance on the sun of Woods winning another major. But four-time major winner Ernie Els says not so fast to those critics.

“I am in my late 40s, and he is just getting into them,” Els said of the 41-year-old Woods ahead of this week’s Singapore Open, according to Reuters. “There have been a few cases where we have won majors in our 40s. It doesn’t happen that often but it does happen. If players like myself, Darren Clarke and Mark O’Meara won (majors) in our 40s, surely Tiger thinks he can do it, too. I am sure it’s on his agenda.”

Mind you, Els and Clarke won their majors in their 40s in the British Open, while O’Meara won both the Masters and Claret Jug in an incredible 1998. Of all the majors, the Open lends itself to older champions.

Els is interested to see what Woods will do, coming off what amounts to a 16-month break from competition that ended with a 15th-place finish in the Hero World Challenge in December. The South African believes Woods has the mental acumen to still work his way around a course and beat a field. He just has to find form good enough to beat the likes of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson.

“Mentally, he is as strong as anybody but he needs to find some momentum at his favorite events and if he gets that, he can start believing again,” Els said. “I would love to see him play like he did back in the 90s, but I am not sure that is going to happen. … There’s a lot of excellent players out there, some of them playing great golf, so it will be great to see if Tiger can get back in the mix at some of the big events and create even more of a buzz.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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