It wasn’t long after the Champions Tour season restarted to grow the bar Ernie Els profile.
© Photo file
Ernie Els
Els, who scored a win and a spot in his three previous Champions Tour starts, was not particularly happy with his opening round at the Warwick Hills G&CC as part of the Allly Challenge, the first senior tour event after the pandemic.
But in his penultimate hole of the day, Els changed his fortunes, dropping one hole in one – his first in two years and the 17th of his career – in the course near Flint.
“Ricci (Roberts), my cart, said,” You know, it was a nice swing in the golf course, “said Els.” The ball was in the air and the next thing was in the hole. “
Els ended the day at 3-under, just three shots from leaders Billy Andrade and Tommy Armor III.
Beers on @TheBig_Easy!
He made his 17th hole career in number 8 (6-iron, 192 yards) at @AllyChallenge. pic.twitter.com/MoV2PNRPSR
– PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 31, 2020
Andrade warmed up on the back nine en route to the top of the rankings. He shot 32 after the round, burying the birds at numbers 10, 13, 14 and 15. Although he insisted that he trained before the trip to Michigan, Andrade said he needed the awareness that the Champions Tour was returning to to make its competitive juices flow.
“Well, I think the most important thing was the first two or three months,
there was really no starting point. And once we knew, OK, hey, we’ll start at the Ally Challenge, hopefully, OK, so now you have a starting point and then you can start improving your practice. But we are over 50 years old. It’s not like we’re practicing a lot. But it’s nice to have a goal to work on since this pandemic started, “said Andrade. “It’s as if we definitely aren’t playing, so it’s a lot, I think it’s very difficult for professionals to do jazz to go out and play if you have nothing to work on. Do you know what I’m saying?
“So I think once we knew we were coming here, we were so excited, let’s start this thing, let’s roll the ball. And I think all of us are really excited to be here and to play again. “
Bernhard Langer, Wes Short, Jr. and Tom Gillis are tied with 5 under while Jim Furyk has 4 under in his first Champions Tour event.
MORE:
Rickie Fowler loves to be back in contention in Memphis
Lydia Ko changes the swing instructor again, this time to Sean Foley
WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational: Round 3 tee time, TV information
Bryson DeChambeau in GQ: “My goal is to live at 130 or 140”
Brooks Koepka on putter is getting cold: ‘I have 36 holes to make, friend. I’m not worried
Keep reading
