Ernie Els: 'You want to know why – but there's no easy answer'

It is with a familiar swoon that the galleries of Wentworth will today respond to the sweet motion of Ernie Els. Granted, "The Big Easy" might feel rather uneasy about his swing right now, but to the untrained eye it will still appear the most natural wonder amidst the explosion of colour that is the West Course. And as the crowds watch him amble that gracious way of his, from tee to fairway to green to hole, a few will doubtless sigh to themselves: "Jammy bugger. That Ernie's got it made."

Except he hasn't. They should look closer, past the sponsors' names that cover his clothing and apparel and to the logo emblazoned on his golf bag advertising something that can neither be bought or sold, exchanged or thrown away. "Autism Speaks," it reads. It is fair to comment that the condition has announced itself in the Els family's life with a priority-changing bellow. They are determined to do all they can to make it more widely heard.

Ben is six and has been diagnosed with autism. For months, Els and his wife, Leizl, kept their trauma private and golf's inner circle respected their wish. But then the couple decided to speak out and here these next four days, as the South African tries to win his first BMW PGA Championship, their message should at last reach its British audience.

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"You know, I spoke to my wife obviously, and I really wanted everybody to feel comfortable coming forward talking about it, not only us but our [nine-year-old] daughter, Samantha," said Els. "Basically, I feel quite worried about it because we found out that one in every 150 kids has autism – can you imagine? That is just unbelievable to think of that number. I've got a bit of a profile where it will grab attention. That's what this problem needs."

Autism is a group of developmental disorders characterised by impaired social interaction and its occurrence is vastly more common now than it was 20 years ago. Last year, the US Centre for Disease and Control Prevention published a report that included the statistic that Els and the majority of parents – unaffected or affected – will find so chilling. In the Eighties that figure was put nearer to one in 2,000 to 5,000.

Autism Speaks is a registered charity that claims a child in Britain is diagnosed with the disorder "four times an hour of every working day, yet receives only a fraction of the research funding of much rarer conditions". Els is not alone in wanting to change this baffling anomaly. "What you really want to do is work with the Autism Speaks people," he says, "and get a cure and find out why it happens. I think everybody would like to know that."

Despite so many theories, the exact reason for the increase remains unknown. Els has his own thoughts and cites modern changes in the environment, "either in the food, in the communication sector, with the internet, cell phones, airwaves". Yet he does not profess to be an expert. He purely wants to tell his son's story and raise awareness that way.

"Ben was born with autism," he reveals. "I would say since he was born both myself and Leizl, we kind of heard that boys are a little bit slower to develop than girls are at a very young age. Just the things that he was doing, was wriggling his hands like that, and when we spoke to him there was no response. He didn't walk until he was two years old, a lot of stuff was happening. He just was way off from where Samantha was. We thought maybe he's just kind of a little slow in developing. We took him to numerous doctors, numerous tests, blood tests, all kinds of tests, and he was put under the autism spectrum.

"You know, you want your kid to be a normal kid. You want your kid to play sports and you want your kid to do normal things, and when it doesn't happen you kind of ask questions. You want to know the answer. And there's no simple, straight answer."

Not that Els stopped the search there. Indeed, the journey of discovery was only just beginning. "When it affects you, you start learning more about it," he said. "I met a family in South Africa whose kid is autistic. The kid is 30 years old now. When we go on vacation in South Africa, he's always on the beach; he's a golf nut. So I started playing with him and speaking to his parents, just finding out more about how they raised him and what they did. That's helped a lot."

So, undoubtedly, has the realisation that, thanks to circumstance, he can do all any father possibly could. Yesterday he confirmed that his family would soon be basing themselves largely in Florida and one "huge factor" in that decision was because of his son's treatment. "There's a good school for Ben called the Rainbow School, where they have a full, professional staff looking at autistic kids and helping them along," he says. "In the US they're so far ahead of the rest of the world."

That means his mood is now one of hope rather than despair. "Luckily for him, you know, money-wise he's not going to be struggling for a while," admits Els. "And there's a lot of things we can envisage him doing. Ben loves watching golf, so at some point I'll get him into golf where he can hit the ball and enjoy that. Who knows? We'll see where it goes. But he's not a kid that's so affected by it where he sits in the corner and doesn't want to know anything about anybody else. That's how the worst affected kids are, the kids that don't want any contact with other people. He's not that bad. He's got quite a sense of humour, Ben has, and he will test you. He's a great kid, really. A very happy kid."

Still, Els would not be human, and would definitely not be a parent, if the worries did not descend at frequent intervals. "You can't but feel for the kid more than yourself because you know how lucky you are," Els said. "I'm talking about myself. To be normal and to do normal things and to basically live your dream. And now you've got a situation. That's the thing that really worries me, what's the future going to hold? He's still quite small and young, where young kids really accept him. But what happens when he gets older? Then you're really going to see the difference in his behaviour and things he does. You just hope that you can do the best for his future."

It would be easy for Els to be selfish and just leave it at that wish. Yet that is plainly no longer an option. From the position of privilege he has the vantage point to understand nature's cruel injustice more than most and to stress the necessity of being aware. "Again, the warning is that it could happen to anybody on the range," he says. "Where I'm standing hitting balls, I'm looking around, and all these guys are much younger than me and some of those don't have families yet, and it could happen to anybody out there, and we all want to have families and we all want to live happily ever after. But things happen in life, and you've got to be more prepared when it happens.

"Hopefully speaking out, will help with the awareness and really getting going the research of why autism happens to kids. And we can get people more ready for it. I just felt that I can help people feel better about their situation. It just shows that it can affect anybody, no matter who you are. We're all living in the same boat. All of us have similar problems that affect us."

For more information: www.autismspeaks.org.uk