By John Strege
Ernie Els is a World Golf Hall of Famer who was eager to rejoin his contemporaries on the PGA Tour Champions, though they might have preferred he continued competing against the younger generation.

In only his third start on the senior tour, Els won the Hoag Classic at Newport Beach (Calif.) Country Club on Sunday. In his senior debut in January, he tied for second in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, losing in a playoff.

“It was pretty tight, you know?” Els said. “I felt a little uncomfortable on the greens. I didn’t have that free-flowing feeling, I had to work hard for it and that’s a good thing to do, to work hard for something. You don’t want something falling in your lap. I’m glad the first one’s over with and we can move on now and it gets more comfortable after this. After being in a playoff in Hawaii, coming close to winning there, I didn’t want to mess this one up. I had a great opportunity and I wanted to try and take that.”

It was his first victory since 2013, when he won the European Tour’s BMW International Open, a year after he won the British Open, his fourth major championship.

Els finished with a four-under par 67 to finish 54 holes in 16-under par 197, two strokes ahead of Newport Beach resident Fred Couples, Robert Karlsson and Glen Day.

A fivesome — Els, Couples, Day, Karlsson and Scott McCarron — was tied for the lead midway through the back nine. Day and Karlsson briefly took the lead, though Day was undone by an 18th-hole bogey and Karlsson by a 16th-hole bogey

Els, meanwhile, claimed the lead by holing an eight-footer for birdie at 15, then sealed it with a birdie at the par-5 18th hole.

The post Ernie Els wins for the first time on the PGA Tour Champions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Kirk Triplett is not a Hall of Famer, but he rode a Hall of Fame swing to a playoff victory over Woody Austin in the Hoag Classic on Sunday.

Playing the par-5 18th hole at Newport Beach (Calif.) Country Club for the third time on Sunday, Triplett finally hit the 3-wood second shot he intended, then holed an 18-foot eagle putt for his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory.

The left-to-right putt was similar to one he holed on the 18th hole in regulation to get into a playoff with Austin.

Each of the players parred the 18th on the first playoff hole. Playing it again on the second extra hole, Triplett drove it in the fairway, while Austin flared his tee shot right and missed the green well right with his second.

Triplett then hit a 3-wood from 252 yards that just carried a bunker left of the green and rolled out to 18 feet of the hole.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Triplett said when asked his thought process on that shot. “Like any good baseball player, I’m one out of three. I’d be in the Hall of Fame, right?

“I’ve been trying to hit the centre of the green every single time. That one I thought would go in the bunker, but it covered.”

Austin squandered two opportunities to win, by failing to get up and down for birdie from the fringe at 18 in regulation, then hitting a poor bunker shot at 18 on the first playoff hole, leaving him a long birdie putt that he missed.

Triplett is off to a torrid start to his 2019 campaign. Only a week before, he tied for second in the Cologuard Classic and finished in the top 20 in two of his other three starts.

He finished with a three-under par 68, as did Austin. Fran Quinn, who took a three-stroke lead into the final round, made only a single birdie on Sunday, posted a three-over par 74 and tied for fifth, two shots back.

The post Kirk Triplett’s ‘Hall of Fame’ 3-wood shot gives him playoff win over Woody Austin in Hoag Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
What if is a familiar lament in golf circles, even a cliché, though Jeff Maggert would be forgiven for using it in the wake of his tie for third in the Hoag Classic on Sunday.

On the final hole of his first round at Newport Beach Country Club on Friday, Maggert had a five-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th. He missed. He missed the comebacker for par. He missed his bogey putt, then missed his double-bogey putt, before tapping in his fifth putt for a triple-bogey 8.

@tak6tak @KipHenley so… This just happened to Jeff Maggert pic.twitter.com/kbghznC2yo

— Frank Andy (@ftandru) March 9, 2019

He shot a five-over-par 76, 12 shots behind the first-round leaders in the PGA Tour Champions event.

Then he received a putting tip from his friend Billy Ray Brown, who was on site working for Golf Channel. Brown noticed that Maggert’s forward press was causing him to hit the ball with a descending blow. He told him to move hands back slightly.

On Saturday, Maggert shot the best round of the day, an eight-under-par 63 and followed it up with a six-under-par 65 that equalled the best round of the day on Sunday. In the end, Maggert impressively finished one shot out of a playoff and tied for third. It was Maggert’s best finish in five starts on the PGA Tour Champions in 2019 and his best result since finishing solo second at the Constellation Senior Players Championship last July.

Of course, what might have been had he not five-putted was that he likely would not have received the tip from Brown that Maggert rode to his runner-up finish.

The post Jeff Maggert’s what if: If he hadn’t five-putted from five feet on Friday, he might have won on Sunday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Maggert, a three-time PGA Tour winner who held the solo 54-hole lead at the 2003 Masters, reached the 18th green in regulation and had less than 10 feet left for his birdie. Would you believe it if we told you he walked off with a triple-bogey 8? Warning — graphic content below:

@tak6tak @KipHenley so… This just happened to Jeff Maggert pic.twitter.com/kbghznC2yo

— Frank Andy (@ftandru) March 9, 2019

File this one under things you just hate to see, but not in a sarcastic way like the kids say. You actually really do hate to see that, especially if you’ve ever dipped your toe into a real competitive round before. Suddenly, those five-footers that are “good” on the weekend become the toughest putts in your round, and if you’re not used to them you can find yourself in a similar, nightmarish situation as Maggert’s. One short miss becomes two, two becomes three and the next thing you know you’re in the five-putt club.

Credit to Maggert for remaining calm, though you can tell he’s simmering on the inside. He gave his entire group the quick handshake as he made a b-line for the locker room, and we can’t blame him. Not everybody can just laugh it off like Ernie Els

Maggert finished with a five-over 76, dropping him into a tie for 66th.

The post Watch Jeff Maggert five-putt from inside 10 feet on the 18th hole at the Hoag Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.