The South African has twice finished as runner-up at Augusta National and has another four top-10 finishes to his name since making his debut in 1994.

He has struggled to contend for the victory since 2004 when Phil Mickelson came roaring back to win with a long putt at the 18th, avoiding a play-off with Els.

Twelve months ago he failed to make the cut and the 47-year-old knows the 2017 tournament could be his final appearance at the prestigious event, so he wants to go out on a high.

“I’ve had 23 goes at it and had a great time,” Els said, as quoted by augusta.com. “I’m not really looking at it as my last one, but if it is, it is.

“I’ve put a lot of energy into that event, and that’s why after 23 times there I’m not really looking at going to win.

“I’m hoping to have a nice week, and if I can play the four rounds that’ll be great and that’ll be that.

“A lot of guys have never had the opportunity to have a chance to win, and I’ve had a couple of chances to win. So I knew how that felt. It didn’t quite go my way. I just want to have a good week.”

It all looked like being so different for Els after he impressed on his debut in 1994 - finishing eighth - but it was just the first in a number of disappointments at the iconic venue.

“I think there’ll always be a little bit of bitterness [at not winning],” Els added. “That’s just the way it is.

“I had such a great start to the event in 1994 and finishing eighth and finishing second in 2000 and ‘04 almost winning. Ever since then it’s been kind of a tough road for me. But I’ll always look back on it as one I always wanted to win and couldn’t win.

“Certain players get really good breaks and fall in love with the place and just know if they hit it they’ve got a good chance of getting a good bounce. And those certain players have won one, two, three, four of them. They kind of figured it out.

“You can’t tell me a bounce I don’t know on the place, but for me I kind of got on the wrong side of it and momentum went kind of against me and that’s that.

“The Masters will always have a little bit of sting to it, but not in a bad way.”

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