Ernie Els Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

South African star Ernie Els hopes to roll back the years at BNI Indonesian Masters

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:33:33 +0000

By GolfDigestME.com
A galaxy of stars are playing in this week’s BNI Indonesian Masters, three-time winner Lee Westwood, plus former champs Bernd Wiesberger, Anirban Lahiri, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, and Jazz Janewattananond.

But one star player stands out more than any other, and in more ways one, here at Royale Jakarta Golf Club, the ‘Big Easy’ Ernie Els.

Now 53 years old and a regular on the Champions Tour, he is making a popular return to the region, where he has enjoyed great success, winning three times on the Asian Tour.

“I just want to have a nice week, if things work out nicely then I will be very thrilled and if it doesn’t I just want to have a nice week and enjoy myself,” said the South African.

“I obviously want to try and play well, feel like I am swinging it good, it’s really coming out beautiful, there is a bit of doubt here and there. I am just getting my club back on plane, I was a little inside, a little deep. It feels good when I make good contact.”

He finished second here in 2013, when Wiesberger won, and despite not playing much recently he feels his game is in good shape.

“I have been playing really well, I played over on the Champions Tour, I had 13 top-10s out of 20-something events,” he added. “I ran close a couple of times, but I never got a win. I really am looking forward to next year, the competition is strong out there.

“I haven’t played in a month, I have just been playing a bit of social golf, in South Africa. I am trying to find something, but it’s okay, I am just enjoying myself out here, with my friend Nico [Van Rensburg] on the bag, he played in Asia for a long time.”

In Van Rensburg he could not have a better man to help guide him as he played regularly on the Asian Tour in the 1990s, winning three times, and thrilling galleries with his eye-catching big-hitting game.

“Nico is great, we have known each other since childhood, so it’s nice to have him on the bag. He’s loving it because he is seeing some of his old mates,” said Els.

Els’ last big win came at the 2013 BMW International Open in Europe, while his two wins on the Champions Tour came in 2020, but don’t be surprised if he adds some more silverware to his trophy cabinet this week, in what is the season-ending event on the Asian Tour and last of the year’s seven International Series contests.

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Glen Day earns share of Senior Open lead at Gleneagles despite losing clubs

Matt Smith — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 06:37:23 +0000

By Matt Smith
Unheralded American Glen Day eagled the last hole to take a share of the Senior Open lead, despite playing with a new set of clubs after his failed to arrive from the United States.

The American converted an eight-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole of the King’s Course to post a six-under round of 64 and join Stephen Ames at the top of the leaderboard at Gleneagles, following the Canadian’s bogey-free target-setter earlier in the day.

Day’s closing eagle was the final stroke of a red-hot putting performance, for which he credited countryman Wes Short Jnr following a pre-tournament putting lesson in Perthshire after a period of struggle on the greens.

The leading duo are one stroke clear of a star-studded chasing pack, including past winner Paul Broadhurst, 2011 Open Champion Darren Clarke, 2020 Senior Players winner Jerry Kelly and Kent Jones, of the United States, who progressed through a play-off in Monday Qualifying to book his spot at Gleneagles.

Three-time major champ Pádraig Harrington enjoyed a positive start to his Senior Open debut with a four-under 66, leaving him in a share of seventh place alongside six others, including fellow debutant and 2010 BMW PGA Champion Simon Khan and two-time Champion Golfer of the Year Ernie Els.

“I putted great,” said Day. “I really have to, I’ve got to give some credit to Wes Short. We are staying together this week and he gave me a little putting lesson, and for the first time, I made a lot of putts today, so that was it.

“We played late obviously. No wind. Very rarely have I ever played over here, been this calm and easy. So yeah, they are there, but you have to hit good shots. If you hit good shots and make putts, good things happen.

“I have nothing with me. I didn’t even get my golf clubs. I had to get another set of clubs, and this is a new putter and a driver that I didn’t hit very well. Everything is — no. I have no reason to believe I would play good today.”

Harrington added: “I’m happy with that score. I was very tentative. I putted well and my putter saved me most of the day.”

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Open Championship 2022 takeaways: A rare rookie leader, LIV golfers lurk and other Day 1 notes

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 07:17:32 +0000

Cameron Young jumped to the top of the leaderboard with an opening 64 — and it could have been lower. Richard Heathcote/R&A

By Ryan Herrington
It stays light out late in this part of the world, which is a good thing. They were still playing golf late on Thursday at the Open Championship, the final groups still on the course past 10pm local time. That’s roughly 15-and-a-half hours after the first balls were struck. In between, as you might imagine, there was plenty that went on, with low scores to be had on a relatively tranquil day at the Old Course. And plenty of surprises to be found as well, including nine we felt stood out the most.

Cameron Young didn’t go lower

An eight-under 64 at the Old Course in your first round at an Open Championship — while hitting all 18 greens for the first time in a round on the PGA Tour — is what dreams are made of. Yet when Young walked off the 18th green on Thursday, he actually had a right to think he let the round slip away a bit. On the par-5 14th, he had 30 feet for eagle and settled for par. He lipped out for birdie on the 15th. And on the par-4 16th a six-footer for birdie was also squandered. Sure, he two-putted from 90 feet to save par on the 17th, but that 64 — still good enough for a two-shot lead over Rory McIlroy — could have been a couple shots lower without a whole lot more effort. Even so, Young becomes the first first-time Open participant to hold the 18-hole lead since amateur Tom Lewis in 2011.

Tiger Woods went that high

Tiger Woods. Andrew Redington

Tiger was grinding all week at St Andrews, trying to work out the kinks of a swing lacking in competitive reps. And in watching him practise, you held out hope that he’d somehow find something to cling to and be able to put on a little bit of a show come Thursday. After all, conditions at St Andrews seemed to be on the side of the golfer still recovering from his horrific car crash. However, it wasn’t meant to be on Thursday, a fact evident on the opening hole when Woods scuffed his approach shot into the Barry Burn, setting up a bad bogey. There were more to come, along with a couple doubles and a frustrating par on the 18th after his drive flirted with the green only to roll back into the Valley of Sin. It all added up to a disappointing 78. Only exacerbating the issue: Woods tees off early on Friday, meaning his recovery from the long opening round must be quick if he hopes for any kind of bounce back in Round 2. Otherwise, he’s facing just his third career missed cut in 22 Open starts.

Viktor Hovland survived two bad bunker breaks

Woods famously won the 2000 Open at St Andrews without finding a bunker over 72 holes. If Viktor Hovland wins on Sunday, he won’t be able to say the same. On the contrary, Hovland learned the hard way on Thursday that the bunkers at the Old Course are genuine places you need to avoid at all costs.
Here’s his stance after hitting his approach shot into this pot bunker on the fourth hole.

Links golf is hard. Viktor Hovland escaped the 4th with a bogey.#TheOpen pic.twitter.com/DVGDrPqdLl

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 14, 2022

Hovland had to play out sideways and eventually posted a bogey 5 on the hole.
Then on the par-4 12th, Hovland attempted to drive the green but found the bunker just short of the putting surface. It was so close to the sodded side that he had to take an unplayable lie. Impressively he still walked away with a par.
To his credit, Hovland didn’t let the unfortunate circumstances frustrate him as he played the final three holes birdie-birdie-birdie to wrap up

This many LIV Golfers on the leaderboard

Dustin Johnson. Ross Parker

R&A chief Martin Slumbers made no mistake about his position on the LIV Golf series during his Wednesday pre-championship media conference as “not in the best long-term interest of the sport.” Not so coincidentally, perhaps, the 24 golfers from the circuit playing in the Open have gotten little deference this week, with some surprising tee times and no players asked to speak with the media before the start of the championship. And while Slumbers was diplomatic when asked if it was his worst nightmare if a LIV player won on Sunday, you get the impression it will be an awkward situation if it were to happen.

Yet it very well might happen judging from the number of LIV-affiliated players on the leaderboard at day’s end Thursday. Three players — Dustin Johnson, Talor Gooch and Lee Westwood — finished with 68s (Westwood despite a double bogey on his second hole) to leave themselves in a tie for fourth place. Two more, Ian Poulter and Bryson DeChambeau, shot 69s. While Westwood and Poulter hail from England, neither has played all that well in 2022, making them true surprises. The same perhaps with DeChambeau, plagued by injuries and the attempt to recover from injuries for most of the year.

Matt Fitzpatrick’s ho-hum start

You win a major and your season automatically registers as great. So whatever happens this week for Matt Fitzpatrick, it’s going to be hard to forget the glow of his US Open triumph at Brookline. Even so, you have to think the Englishman was hoping for more than an even-par 72 in the first round at St Andrews. It wasn’t like Fitzpatrick hit the ball poorly, but he struggled rolling in any meaningful putts. There’s still plenty of golf left, but on a day where scoring was easy, Fitzy would no doubt like to have had a few more birdies drop.

Ernie Els’ first 15 holes

Ernie Els. Kevin C Cox

Statistics show that the Open Championship is the major where “older” players have a better chance at contending; five of the last nine winners were between 39 and 43 when they grabbed the Claret Jug. Perhaps then we shouldn’t have been surprised to see 53-year-old Ernie Els appear on the leaderboard early Thursday at the Old Course. Playing in the Open for the 31st time, the 2002 and 2012 winner was wondering if competing in 2022 might have some special magical symmetry to it. That was particularly the case through 15 holes, when Els sat a four under for his round and inside the top five on the leaderboard. However …

Ernie Els’ last three holes

Ernie Els. Ross Kinnaird

… the reality that Els hadn’t broken 70 in a round at the Open Championship since Day 1 at Birkdale 2017 came crashing in on the final three holes at the Old Course. A bogey/double bogey on the 16th and 17th, followed by a disappointing par on the 18th left him shaking his head despite a two-under 70.

“I played good. I putted nice and played good,” Els said. “I just had that one frickin’ tee shot on 17. Anyway, that’s my day.”

Justin Thomas’ joggers

We’ll just leave this here for you all to discuss:

Fashion or fashion faux pas from Justin Thomas?

Watch our Featured Group player here Live at the Range? https://t.co/DukwMbchib #The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/LkZVoKfzqU

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 14, 2022

Thomas shot an even-par 72. Not sure if they’d have looked better if he didn’t make a double-bogey 6 on the 17th hole

How important a good start is at St Andrews

We’ll end with this stat courtesy of Justin Ray at Twenty First Group:

Every #TheOpen winner at St Andrews since 1939 was at/within 3 of the lead after round 1.

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) July 14, 2022

If it holds true, the winner come Sunday is either Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith and Robert Dinwiddie. Thanks everybody else for stopping by.

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US Open 2022: Can you guess the 10 golfers who’ve made the most money in their US Open careers?

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 09:26:59 +0000

David Cannon

By Ryan Herrington
There’s a saying that winning a major championship is priceless. And we get what’s meant when it’s said. The true currency that comes with victory in one of golf’s biggest events isn’t something you deposit in a bank account. It’s spent when you step on to a tee box and are forever referred to as a major champion.

However …

They do actually pay money to the winner of a major. A lot of money. This week, Matt Fitzpatrick took home $3.15 million, the largest individual prize money payout for any winner of a major championship.

Of course, the spoils have been far larger in recent years — and the conversation about money in golf has been amplified with the rise of LIV Golf and the debate over players earning guaranteed paydays in no-cut events. But it’s interesting to contrast what’s going on now with the past.

Consider that Jack Nicklaus played in 44 US Open during his historic career, won a record tying four times and earned a grand total of $363,955. That’s slightly more than the player who finishes in 12th place will earn at Brookline. Arnold Palmer, in 32 US Open starts, made $112,119.50. Finish 31st in the 2022 championship and you’ve made more. Ben Hogan’s career US Open earnings ($32,651.66) get beat by the last-place finisher among the pros this year, Stewart Hagestad.

So the list of the top 10 all-time money winners in US Open history will naturally be skewed to those who played — and likely won — in recent years. But before looking at the list below, it is interesting to note that you don’t have to have won the event to have banked some big bucks in the USGA event.

So, can you guess the 10 tour pros who’ll be named below? Probably, but we bet there will be a few surprises, too. (All stats are through the 2021 US Open at Torrey Pines.)

Rory McIlroy. David Cannon

10. Rory McIlroy, $2,845,052
Starts: 13 Wins: 1 Top-10s: 6 Missed Cuts: 5
Average earnings/start: $218,850.15

McIlroy made a fourth straight top-10 finish in the US Open at The Country Club after having won the title back in 2011 at Congressional.

Jon Rahm. Sean M. Haffey

9. Jon Rahm, $2,933,669
Starts: 6 Wins: 1 Top-10s: 2 Missed Cuts: 2
Average earnings/start: $488,944.83

Rahm’s win at Torrey Pines vaulted him into the top 10.

Justin Rose. Getty Images

8. Justin Rose, $2,939,203
Starts: 16 Wins: 1 Top-10s: 5 Missed Cuts: 7
Average earnings/start: $183,700.19

Rose’s win in 2013 at Merion has allowed him to play the rest of his career without the burden of chasing an elusive major that’s followed fellow Englishman Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood in their careers.

Ernie Els. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

7. Ernie Els, $3,049,309.92
Starts: 27 Wins: 2 Top-10s: 10 Missed Cuts: 7
Average earnings/start: $112,937.33

Els’ US Open record is even better than the two wins would lead you to believe. From 1993 to 2013, he had seven top-fives and 10 top-10s.

Louis Oosthuizen. David Berding

6. Louis Oothuizen, $4,038,535.33
Starts: 12 Wins: 0 Top-10s: 5 Missed Cuts: 2 (1 WD)
Average earnings/start: $336,544.611

The South African nabbed his second runner-up finish in the event at Torrey Pines in 2021.

Jim Furyk. Warren Little

5. Jim Furyk, $4,191,423.93
Starts: 25 Wins: 1 Top-10s: 7 Missed Cuts: 3
Average earnings/start: $167,656.84

Furyk’s career milestone win was a US Open at Olympia Fields in 2003, but what is underappreciated is his consistency in the championship, with seven top-10s and just three missed cuts in 25 starts.

Phil Mickelson. Icon Sportswire

4. Phil Mickelson, $4,350,759.08
Starts: 30 Wins: 0 Top-10s: 10 Missed Cuts: 4
Average earnings/start: $145,025.30

Mickelson was in the news this week at The Country Club for reasons other than trying to finally clinch the career Grand Slam.

Dustin Johnson. Getty Images

3. Dustin Johnson, $4,762,664
Starts: 14 Wins: 1 Top-10s: 6 Missed Cuts: 2
Average earnings/start: $340,188.86

DJ’s sneaky good U.S. Open record includes five top-six finishes in the last eight years.

Tiger Woods. Richard Hartog/Getty Images

2. Tiger Woods, $5,773,917.60
Starts: 22 Wins: 3 Top-10s: 8 Missed Cuts: 4
Average earnings/start: $262,450.72

If only Woods’ three victories came more recently than 22, 20 and 14 years ago, he’d hold the top spot.

Brooks Koepka. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

1. Brooks Koepka, $6,788,470
Starts: 8 Wins: 2 Top-10s: 5 Missed Cuts: 1
Average earnings/start: $848,558.75

Interestingly enough, Koepka is the only player to ever earn more than $1 million in three consecutive US Opens, thanks to his wins in 2017 and 2018 and a runner-up showing in 2019.

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Cameron Beckman, with an assist from his sister, delivers the unlikeliest of victories over a Hall of Famer

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 23:44:01 +0000

Hunter Martin

By John Strege
Upsets come with varying degrees of surprise, but this one from Cameron Beckman in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on Sunday seemed closer to impossible than improbable, a slumping journeyman knocking out a World Golf Hall of Famer.

Beckman, 51, playing without full-time status on the PGA Tour Champions and mired in a slump, birdied the first five holes of the back nine at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y., then hung on to defeat probably the best player on the senior tour, Ernie Els, by a stroke.

“My life is so good right now,” Beckman said after a tap-in bogey at 18 gave him his first victory in 4,151 days, since he won the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun in 2010. “I’ve got so much good stuff going on in my life. This just adds to it. I’ve had a bad kind of run in 2021 and kind of got focused with my sister [Tiffany Mattick] and she really got me going. She’s a mental coach. I needed some help. This just feels great. I had so much fun. Getting to play with Ernie and Darren [Clarke]. It was a blast.

“I spent a lot of time with my sister talking this week. And I haven’t been playing that great. So today I thought it was a great opportunity to really loosen up and play, and see if I could really kind of play like I’m capable of. That’s kind of what I did, and that’s why I’m standing here kissing that trophy.”

Beckman did not get his first 2021 start until May, a tie for 20th in the Insperity Invitational. In his next seven starts, he never finished better than a tie for 42nd and in four of them finished tied for 60th or worse.To compound the unlikelihood of his winning on Sunday, he started the final round three strokes back of Els and started the back nine still three strokes down. Then he made those five straight birdies, while Els was playing the same holes in two-over, a seven-stroke swing between the pair.

Beckman limped home from there, with two bogeys on his final four holes, including at the 18th when he hit his tee shot into the water, while Els played the final four in one-under. Beckman shot a four-under-par 68 to finish 54 holes in 12-under par 204, while Els shot an even-par 72 for a 205 total.

“It’s going to sting a bit,” Els said. “I think I might need to have a couple of beers tonight. But at least my game is there. I’ve had two good weeks. Today I should have won, but Cameron played a great round of golf. He kept it together when he needed to.”

The victory gives Beckman, who won three times on the PGA Tour, a full exemption on the senior tour through the remainder of this year and in 2022. Moreover, he now qualifies to play in the U.S. Senior Open that starts Thursday at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb

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Ernie Els almost DQ’d due to flat tire

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 22:36:25 +0000

Chris Keane

By Joel Beall
Nothing can slow down Ernie Els on the senior circuit. Including a flat tire.

Els has been on fire in his freshman campaign on the PGA Tour Champions, winning twice and posting nine top 10s in 11 appearances this year to lead the tour in earnings. That hot streak was almost doused, however, by a faulty wheel on Els’ way to the TimberTech Championship pro-am at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla., on Thursday.

Per tour rules, a player is disqualified from the tournament if he misses the pro-am—a rule that famously knocked out Jim Furyk of the 2010 Barclays—forcing Els in scramble mode.

“I started making calls right away, let’s put it that way,” Els told the Palm Beach Post. “I heard the car hit something and all of a sudden the alarms started going off.”

A DQ would have been an extra blow, as this week is a bit of a home game for Els, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens. Luckily for the 51-year-old, a tournament official came to pick him up and get him to the course before missing his tee time.

“Fortunately, I was coming down early to have breakfast beforehand, so I had extra time,” Els said.

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How a few big names who don’t like losing are making the PGA Tour Champions competitive again

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:55:07 +0000

By John Feinstein
It was a remarkable final leaderboard. Four-time major champion and World Golf Hall of Fame member Ernie Els had slammed home a 40-foot putt on the 18th green to win the tournament. He had held off Colin Montgomerie, also a Hall-of-Famer, by one shot. Two shots behind Els in third place was yet another Hall-of-Famer, three-time major winner Vijay Singh.

Wow.

There was more: Jim Furyk, a past U.S. Open champion and a sure-fire future Hall-of-Famer finished in a tie for eighth. Darren Clarke, David Toms and Mike Weir, all major winners, were also sprinkled among the leaders, not to mention 63-year-old Bernhard Langer, a two-time major champion, and another Hall-of-Famer, who had a rare off-day, shooting a two-over-par 74 to drop from a tie for fourth going into Sunday to a tie for 14th.

Welcome to the SAS Championship, which dramatically concluded Sunday afternoon at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C., a tony suburb of Raleigh.

All those names are now regulars on what is known these days as PGA Tour Champions, the tour’s latest marketing attempt to convince golf fans that the old guys, the over-50 set, can still play.

Guess what? They can.

Since it was launched in 1980, the senior circuit has always been about nostalgia and big names. It was started by then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman largely to give Arnold Palmer a place to continue competing. Until then, the only significant senior event was the Senior PGA Championship, run by the PGA of America. Beman recast the age requirement in order to be considered a “senior” from 55 to 50 so that Palmer, who had turned 50 in September 1979 could compete in the tour’s new events. At the same time, the USGA established the U.S. Senior Open, and a movement had begun.

Led by Palmer and, a few years later by Lee Trevino (who won 29 times) and Chi Chi Rodriguez (who had 22 victories), the tour was a success early on. The old guys seemed to be having more fun than the young guys—the “flat bellies” as Trevino called them—and they still had game. Jack Nicklaus was dragged kicking and screaming to play, but showed up enough to win 10 times, including eight senior majors.

Eventually, though, the novelty wore off, especially when Palmer and Nicklaus stopped playing and people began to notice that the low scores the seniors were shooting had a lot to do with playing shortened golf courses that frequently had member-guest-like pin positions.

Yet now, with a new batch of notable names turning the magic number, there appears to be an opportunity to make the 50-and-older tour matter again to more than friends and family.

The tour heads to Richmond this weekend to begin what is normally its season-ending three-week playoff run, but there are no playoffs this fall due to the pandemic. Like with the Korn Ferry Tour, officials are taking tournaments that did get played in 2020 and joining them with events in 2021 for one large wrap-around season.

Teeing it up on Friday is Phil Mickelson. It will be his second appearance among the 50-and-older set. The first came in August after Mickelson missed the cut outside Boston at the Northern Trust, leaving him 75th in the FedEx Cup standings and without a spot in the next week’s BMW Championships.

Not a problem. Mickelson jumped on a plane and flew to Missouri to play in the Charles Schwab Series at Ozark National—his first foray into senior golf since he turned 50 in June. His first-round produced a stunning 61 and he cruised from there, shooting 64-66 to finish at 191—a ridiculous 22 under par. He beat Tim Petrovic by four shots.

Though Mickelson isn’t going to give up on playing regular tour events, he clearly is planning to play in PGA Tour Champions tournaments along the way since he’s still long enough to dominate on the shorter senior golf courses in ways he can no longer dominate on the regular tour.

Brett Carlsen
How much Mickelson will play on the PGA Tour Champions is still unclear, but he seemed to enjoy the camaraderie during his first start in August.

Historically, that’s what happens to top players. Nicklaus was the first to vow to continue playing against the best for as long as he believed he could compete. Even though he managed to finish T-6 at the Masters in 1998 at 58, competing clearly became more and more difficult. After turning 50, Nicklaus never finished in the top 20 in any major other than the Masters—a sixth in 1990 and the T-6 eight years later.

That’s why he played a limited senior schedule—but did play. He won two senior majors in 1990.

Nicklaus was no different than any great competitor: He wanted to tee it up thinking he had a chance to win. The 50-and-older tour gives guys who can no longer consistently have a chance to win on the regular tour, the chance to do that. Davis Love III, who still plays PGA Tour events at 56, did win in Greensboro five years ago at 51. Now, Love admits he isn’t long enough anymore to manhandle tour courses the way he did when he was younger.

Furyk wasn’t sure a year ago how much he would play with the seniors when he turned 50—which he did this past May. “I think I’ll see where I stand on the regular tour at the end of 2020 and then decide,” he said.

COVID-19 cancelled enough tournaments to make it tough for Furyk to make that decision. But he decided to tee it up at the Ally Championship at Warwick Hills (a former PGA Tour venue) and won. Then he went to Pebble Beach—a current PGA Tour venue—and won the Pure Insurance Championship. His T-8 at Prestonwood no doubt felt like a huge letdown.

Rey Del Rio

For the top players, the ones who can bring sponsorships to the tour and help TV ratings, money is not the main incentive. Els won $315,000 for his victory last week—exactly 25 percent of what Martin Laird made for winning in Las Vegas that same day. That’s fairly typical. Of course, the old guys get to play in carts most weeks and most tournaments are 54 holes with no cut. Shooting in the 60s is fairly commonplace. Els’ winning score of 12 under par was much higher than most weeks when the winner will often shoot close to 20 under par for three rounds.

Truth is what seems to be driving these players is the competition. Simply put, they love to compete, and they also enjoy being treated like stars at tournament sites. Unlike athletes in other sports, they can still bask in the glow of VIP treatment well past their peak playing days.

With Mickelson, Furyk, Els and Weir now on the senior tour and with Singh, a now-healthy Montgomerie and Love probably playing more often, there’s a chance to get more people to take a serious look at what Billy Andrade, who has had a good deal of success since turning 50 six years ago, calls, “the fun tour.”

A few tweaks might help. The tour should make the setups more difficult week-to-week. These guys can play. Challenge them to prove it more often. Get rid of one of the five majors. The senior majors are played in such-rapid fire manner in the spring and summer that it’s difficult to know what is a major and what isn’t a major. There should be four senior majors—The U.S. Open, the British Open, the PGA and the Players—the last if only to fulfill the tour’s dream of making one version of the Players a major. A senior Masters, played a Pebble Beach or Shinnecock, would be better.

On Dec. 30, 2025, Tiger Woods will turn 50. Woods will no doubt want to compete in the real majors for as long as he can possibly compete. But don’t bet against him not joining the “fun tour.” He’s a golfer. And golfers live to play golf.

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Ernie Els gives the PGA Tour Champions rookie class a sixth victory in 11 starts

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 23:15:21 +0000

Chris Keane

By John Strege
An acclaimed PGA Tour Champions rookie class virtually was certain to have an impact, but who could have foreseen it would be a dominant one?

Yet Ernie Els’ victory in the SAS Championship on a rainy Sunday in Cary, N.C., was the sixth by newly-minted 50-year-olds in the 11 senior events played in 2020.

Els, who turned 50 last October, accounts for two of them, the latest by virtue of his holing a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole of Prestonwood Country Club, to defeat another Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie by a stroke.

Jim Furyk, who turned 50 in May, also has two senior wins in three starts. Phil Mickelson, who turned 50 in June, is one for one, and an unheralded senior rookie Shane Bertsch, who turned 50 in March, has won once in six starts.

A winning percentage better than 50 was not a consideration at the outset of 2020. Of the three stalwarts, Els was the only one committed to playing a full schedule. Furyk was going to play some, but was undecided on how much and it was dependent on how well he was playing on the PGA Tour. And Mickelson, he gave the impression he might not play at all.

Els began the final round in ninth place and trailing leaders Darren Clarke, Woody Austin and Montgomerie by three strokes. Els concluded he needed a 64 to have a chance to win, but then the elements interceded and he closed with a six-under-par 66 and a 54-hole total of 12-under 204, good enough beat Montgomerie by one.

“I had 64 in mind,” Els said. “There were so many guys bunched, but then the conditions helped out. It became really tough. Sixty-six was just squeaking in there.”

Credit goes a putting tip he received from long-time friend Mark O’Meara earlier in the week.

“By chance I saw him on the putting green the other day,” he said. “We started chatting a little bit. He was using the same putter that I use. Started talking a little bit. I said, ‘have a little look here.’ I didn’t have a great experience at Pebble [Beach, the PURE Insurance Championship] obviously a couple of weeks ago. He looked at me. He’s a great putter. Knowing a man that long, he gave me a nice assist telling me what I felt I should do.”

The rookies likely aren’t through winning yet. Mickelson has committed to play the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, his second senior start, this week. Els and Furyk also are entered.

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Els, Harrington, Matthew, Price become honorary members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:54:13 +0000

By John Huggan
Adding to a distinguished list of luminaries, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has announced that Ernie Els, Nick Price, Padraig Harrington and Catriona Matthew have accepted invitations to become honorary members of golf’s most famous and influential club.

“I would like to congratulate Catriona, Ernie, Padraig and Nick on becoming honorary members,” said R&A captain Clive Edginton in a statement. “They have each distinguished themselves with their long and hugely successful careers in golf. As well as being great champions, they are superb role models for any young golfers to follow and embody so many of the qualities which make golf such a special sport. They have done a great deal to help promote golf around the world and this recognition is extremely well deserved.”

Although Matthew was the recipient of an R&A scholarship while a financial studies student at the University of Stirling, of the four, Harrington has enjoyed the most intimate relationship with the R&A. A three-time Walker Cup player in the early 1990s, the 49-year old Irishman has served as a club ambassador since 2011, “helping to support and promote a wide range of participation, coaching and Rules education initiatives.”

Harrington does, however, share common factors with each of his now fellow members. All four are Open champions, boasting a total of 11 major victories between them. All four has or will serve as a non-playing captain in either the Solheim Cup (Matthew), the Presidents Cup (Els and Price) or the Ryder Cup (Harrington). And all four, as the R&A justifiably claimed, “are among the most successful and influential professional golfers of the modern era and are outstanding ambassadors for the sport.”

As honorary members, Harrington, Price, Matthew and Els will “enjoy” most of the privileges afforded ordinary members. But not all. While they will be eligible to play in club competitions and own a locker in the famous clubhouse that sits behind the first tee on the Old Course at St. Andrews, none of the four will be asked to pay the annual subscription fee.

The list of past and present R&A honorary members includes Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Kel Nagle, Peter Thomson, Robert DeVicenzo, Tony Jacklin, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Laura Davies, Annika Sorenstam, Renee Powell, Lally Sagard, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sir Michael Bonallack and, quaintly, non-golfer Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth.

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Jim Furyk wins in a playoff, while Ernie Els’ Pebble Beach disappointments mount

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 23:20:49 +0000

Jed Jacobsohn

By John Strege
The game never really owes anyone, though Ernie Els would be forgiven had he thought Pebble Beach was indebted to him. Once more, he left the Monterey Peninsula in disappointment.

For the record, Jim Furyk won the PURE Insurance Championship with a birdie on the first playoff hole, the iconic 18th at Pebble Beach, on Sunday, defeating Jerry Kelly for his second PGA Tour Champions victory in his only two starts.

Furyk, who turned 50 in May, joins Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher as the only players to win their first two senior starts.

“I feel very fortunate,” Furyk said. “It means a lot. When I won at [the] Ally [Championship], I hadn’t won in over five years. It’s why we play the game, it’s why you work so hard, it’s to have this feeling.

“I feel honoured to be mentioned with AP. I look at the hard work I put in a lot of this year, through our break. I wasn’t really seeing a lot of results on the PGA Tour, but kind of kept plugging away, working hard and now I’ve seen some results out here.”

Furyk has not fully committed to playing the senior tour, unlike Els, who has played nine senior events this year, winning once and finishing in the top 10 in seven of them.

But he let this one slip away. The 36-hole leader and still tied for the lead going to the par-5 18th, Els made a mess of the hole, ultimately missing a three-foot par putt to join the playoff.

“I just missed the putt,” Els said. “Kind of misread it. You know, I battled hard, I didn’t quite have my swing.”

Adding, he might have noted, to his history of disappointment at Pebble Beach. Twenty years ago, Els played well enough to win a U.S. Open, only to have been steamrollered by Tiger Woods, who won by 15 shots. Els tied for second. Ten years later, Els finished third in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and last year he missed the cut in the Open there.

Els and Furyk were tied for the lead for most of the back nine, with Kelly joining the tie with an 18th-hole birdie to get to 12-under par 276. Kelly had the best round of the day, a seven-under 65.

Furyk, playing behind Kelly, shot a five-under 67, but was unable to make a birdie after the sixth hole. Els, in the group following Furyk, shot a 70.

On the playoff hole, Furyk hit an excellent third shot, his ball spinning back to four feet below the hole. After Kelly missed his own birdie attempt, Furyk holed his.

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