Ernie Els is turning back the clock at the U.S. Open
By Luke Norris
Ernie Els is going old school at the U.S. Open.
Ernie Els is turning back the clock at Erin Hills.
20 years after winning his second U.S. Open, the 47-year-old is gunning for a third title after opening with a 2-under 70 at Erin Hills. Playing alongside former U.S. Open champions Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson, Els opened his round with a par at the 613-yard first hole but got to red numbers quickly with a birdie on the 330-yard, par-4 second and following two more pars, he birdied the par-4 fifth by dropping a 15-foot putt.
After pars at six and seven, Els added another birdie at eight and nearly aced the par-3 ninth to set up another to get to 4-under for the tournament and continued to play solid U.S. Open golf with pars on the next seven holes but did slip up a bit at the end of his round with bogeys at the par-4 17th and the par-5 18th to finish with a 2-under 70, good for a tie for ninth once the morning groups finished their rounds.
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There’s obviously a lot of golf to be played over the next three days but seeing Ernie Els near the top of a U.S. Open leaderboard, even if it may be for only a little while, is a great thing. He hasn’t had a very good 2017, missing the cut in nine of the 15 events in which he’s played and withdrawing from another. His best finish was a tie for 13th at the Qatar Masters early this year but he hasn’t finished higher than 35th in his last three starts and hasn’t been in contention at the U.S. Open since finishing tied for fourth at Merion four years ago.
He’s dropped to 401st in the Official World Golf Ranking and is in the final year of being exempt from qualifying for this tournament; the last five Open Championship winners are automatically entered into the U.S. Open and Els’ 2012 win at Royal Lytham is the only reason he’s in the field. The top ten and ties automatically gain entry into next year’s tournament, so if Ernie Els can somehow find a way to keep this magic going for the next three days and stay right where he is, I don’t think I’m alone in saying that we’ll take as much of him as we can get. And if by some miracle, Els were to go on to win this thing, he would become the oldest major champion in history.
Next: U.S. Open: A complete guide to all 156 players in the field
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