Ernie Els is already a winner of 19 PGA Tour titles, including two US Opens and two Open Championships, is enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and has inspired countless young golfers from his homeland of South Africa through the years.
There was something missing among his many achievements, though, and he readily recognized it. Els, who turns 55 in October, had never won a Major championship among the over-50 set.
“I’m trying to put all the pieces together.”
That day arrived on Sunday at the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone Country Club’s South Course in Akron, Ohio. Els countered a regrettable bogey at the par-five 16th hole with two strong closing pars, and his reward was his first Major championship as a senior. Els shot a two-under 68 on Sunday to finish at 10-under 270, edging YE Yang by a shot.
The victory was Els’ sixth on PGA Tour Champions, made Els the first player to get to three victories this season, and catapulted him to No. 1 in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings. Winning the Kaulig Companies title, formerly the Senior Players, also puts Els in the field next March for his 25th career appearance in The Players at TPC Sawgrass.
“This has been a long time coming on this golf course,” Els said at Firestone. “Thirty-two years ago I started playing here … but I never got to win here. So this was really great.”
Els was testing shafts earlier in the week in preparation for next week’s 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland, and he came upon a nice discovery. He shifted the ball a little further back in his stance, and as a result his contact was good throughout the bag all week. Sunday, it was the putter that came through big at pivotal moments. There was a 10-foot save for par at 12, just after a bogey at 10; then, at the par-four 14th, where 54-hole leader Steve Stricker stumbled to a triple bogey, Els poured in a 30-foot curler for birdie to regain his lead.
At the par-four 17th, where Els’ tee shot found a left-side fairway bunker, Els made a brilliant lag putt from the very back of the green to within inches of the cup for an easy par.
Yang, meanwhile, kept on charging with the best round of the day. The winner of the 2009 PGA Championship, where he took down Tiger Woods at Hazeltine, shot four-under 66 despite missing two short putts in his final seven holes. He missed from inside three feet for par at the par-three 12th and from two feet after a great approach at 17 seemed to have set up a tournament-tying birdie.
Yang finished alone in second. Jerry Kelly, a two-time champion at Firestone, overcame a sluggish Sunday start to shoot 69 and finish alone in third at 273, one shot better than KJ Choi (70) and Stricker (73). Stricker, 57, a six-time winner in 2023, started the day leading by one and stretched the lead to two, but he fell out of the tournament with his bogey at 13 and triple bogey at 14. He continues to seek his first victory of 2024, though here’s something for perspective: In 10 starts this season, only once has Stricker finished worse than eighth.
For Els, he now can enjoy the relief that accompanies landing his first senior Major. It mostly was made possible by his 64 at Firestone on Saturday, a round that matched his best effort of the season and was fueled by an eagle two at No. 17, where he dunked an approach from back in the fairway. He started Sunday a shot behind Stricker. It wasn’t as if Els was not giving himself chances in the bigger events; Sunday’s victory was his fourth finish of T8 or better at PGA Tour Champions Majors this season.
In fact, in 18 previous starts in senior Majors heading into the Kaulig Companies, Els had been T5 or better in half of them. At the 16th hole on Sunday, however, he appeared to make a major gaffe. Els had 222 yards to the hole at the water-guarded par five and, with a one-shot lead and pressing to make more birdies, he went for it. But his approach faded weakly right and short, splashing down in the penalty area. He dropped from 87 yards out, hit a poor wedge, and failed to convert the putt for par.
“It was my mistake – I made a bad swing,” Els said of his errant approach. “But as I look it now, I was trying to make birdie, because I saw that YE was at 10 (under). I was trying to really get ahead of him … but then it was kind of a nervy finish at the end.
“We got it done.”
With a little assistance, he did. Els finished the task with his quality two-putt par at 17, and then really stepped up at the finish. The 18th at Firestone’s South Course is a long, tree-lined par four of 464 yards that moves right-to-left. A true, old-school four. Els stood up and smashed a driver on a line that climbed over trees down the left side and faded back into the fairway. One more solid iron from 155 yards left him hole-high to a back hole location, and he made easy work of two putts for par from there, coaxing his first putt just inches short.
Now he is a senior major champion. Having proudly carried so many titles throughout his career, Els had waited a long time to carry that one, and it really might unlock something inside for a guy who, in his words, had yet to hit on all cylinders as a post-50 player.
“Well, I’ve just been watching Steve (Stricker) do it out here the last couple of years, he’s been the man,” Els said. “Him and Bernhard (Langer) and some of the other guys. I like to work at my game still. I’m trying to keep myself healthy where I can swing hard at the ball; it’s kind of fun still.
“It’s just trying to improve. As I say, I came here this week tinkering and then going through the basics of the golf swing and the fundamentals, and I found something. So, really fortunate.”
The difference? The truly good ones never stop searching. Els’ wife, Liezl, and their son, Ben, were there to celebrate the victory off the 18th green. That pretty much sums up Sunday in Akron, Ohio, for big Ernie Els – 19-time Tour winner, four-time Major champion, Presidents Cup player and captain, World Golf Hall of Fame member … and now, at long last, senior major winner. The new title was enough to put a smile on his face he will carry all the way to Royal Troon. – PGA Tour.
