Ernie Els first played in a professional golf tournament at Firestone Country Club when he was 22 years old. Since then, Els has put together an incredible career that’s landed him in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Els entered Sunday’s final round of the Kaulig Companies Championship with 77 professional wins, including four major championships and time spent as the No. 1 golfer in the world.
Thirty-two years after his first appearance in Akron, Els can finally add a win at Firestone to his illustrious resume.
“It's been a long journey. I never really thought I could win here, I had so many bad runs here. I guess patience, you know, kind of works sometimes,” Els says. “It's a pity I have to fly tonight, it could have been a big bar tab this evening at the Firestone Country Club. I would have been buying a lot of beers, but we'll have to wait for another time.”
The win punches a ticket – if he wants it – for Els to play in The Players Championship next spring on the PGA Tour at TPC Sawgrass.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Els on Sunday. He entered the day one stroke behind Steve Stricker for the lead and had to rebound after a disastrous second shot on “The Monster” par-5 16th hole.
Els hit a towering tee shot down the left side of the fairway, leaving himself 222 yards to clear the pond that defended the front right pin placement. After hitting a 4-iron that exact distance on a shot during Saturday’s third round, Els decided to try and tame the beast.
Stricker was first to play, with his tee shot roughly 10 yards short of Els and in the first cut of rough. He hit his hybrid just through the green, setting up a chip shot approximately 35 feet from the pin. It was a shot he needed to make as he looked to rally back into contention. He made birdie on the par-3 15th hole after making a triple-bogey on the par-4 14th. There was at least a modicum of pressure within Els’ group. He also was keeping an eye on Y.E. Yang, who was two groups ahead and surged to within one stroke of the lead.
With all that in mind, Els didn’t put a great swing on the ball. He hit it thin, causing it to come up well short of carrying the water.
Splash.
“I felt because I hit that shot yesterday with that yardage, I felt comfortable. But I got a little short in my backswing and that's what tension does,” Els says. “It was nobody else's fault. It wasn't a bad club, it wasn't my caddie giving me a bad yardage, it was me.”
That could have been the moment that derailed his first win at Firestone and first major championship on the PGA Tour Champions.
Instead, Els composed himself after making a bogey to retain a one-stroke lead over Yang. He made par on both the 17th and 18th holes to win the tournament.
“There's consequences that's going to happen off of that, you've got to suck it up because you can only blame yourself. So I kind of did that,” Els says. “I was pretty good this week mentally and felt I was driving it well and I just needed to kind of suck it up and finish the tournament.”
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