Samantha Els is all grown up.
Remember the PGA Tour commercial – easily one of the best it ever made – from the early 2000s in which her famous dad, the four-time major champions, plays a math teacher adding the scores on a golf card, and Samantha (Sarah in the commercial) answers the question in her Afrikaans accent, “3 under paw.”
Samantha wasn’t just good at math. She went on to graduate from Stanford with a major in human biology and showed off her own penchant as an athlete represent South Africa’s Springbok women’s national team in rugby.
“I like joking with him, I’ll say ‘I have a green jersey now even if you don’t have a green jacket yet,’ ” Samantha told UK’s The Sun.
Samantha, 25, is the first child of Ernie and Liezl and older brother to Ben, who has autism. While he may have demanded an inordinate amount of attention, the following exchange during an interview with Golfweek suggests that Samantha received her fair share of love and affection too.
“She drove the shit out of her,” Ernie said.
“I did not,” Liezl said.
“You did,” Ernie replied. “But rightly so.”
After graduating from Stanford, Samantha worked in New York City for a year and a half. One time, Ernie visited and saw where she was living.
“I was like, ‘Man, I’m not going to say it, but this is really tough stuff,” Ernie recalled.
Not long after, Ernie got an email from Louis Koen, the head coach of South Africa’s women’s rugby team. He had seen video of Samantha competing for Stanford and the U.S. U-23 team on the internet and invited her to a camp where she’d be considered to train for the Springbok squad.
Samantha had started playing rugby in college. In her first match, she got 27 stitches. Then she cracked an ankle. As the injuries piled up, her dad asked her to stop. Samantha kept playing but not as seriously. When Ernie read the email, he had mixed feelings. Rugby is huge in South Africa and to play on the national team is the highest honor.
“I’m looking at this, and I’m like, rugby? This is professional rugby?” Ernie said.
He sat on the email for a couple days without telling Samantha and then asked Liezl to weigh in.
“If she finds out and you didn’t tell her, you’ll absolutely be dead,” Liezl said.
So, Ernie forwarded the email to Samantha. Two minutes later, the phone rang from New York. “She says, ‘Dad, I’m going. Can I go? I want to go.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Ernie recounted.
We’re so proud of your journey and now you’re the first in the family to wear the rugby Springboks colours. Live every day, a dream for Samantha @WomenBoks
Photo courtesy of Carel Stander Photography. pic.twitter.com/zus2fA0OBM
— Ernie Els (@TheBig_Easy) September 20, 2023
Samantha moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where life is a little simpler and quieter, to play a vicious game. She was called up to the Springbok Women’s camp as they prepared for the WXV 2 tournament.
Playing as a utility forward, she was thrown into the starting line-up for the warm-up match against San Clemente Rhinos and enjoyed a winning debut as South Africa triumphed 22-17. She competed in two international tours and played as a part of the winning team of the Rugby Africa Cup. She’s currently sidelined with another injury.
“She’s got a drive, but I feel she just needed to have something different in her life. Sometimes things come to you,” he said. “When this rugby thing came, I was like, maybe this is that opportunity, and it gives you another opportunity, as you say, to maybe do something different. She’s an absolute superstar, that kid.”
