Call it the feast before the purge.
Insisting he needs to shed a few pounds in the near future, Ernie Els has found Hualalai Country Club pretty tasty during the opening two rounds of the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii.
Els played bogey-free golf in the opening round and made an eagle on No. 15 and a birdie on the closing hole to jump to the top of a star-studded leaderboard.
He then followed with a solid — and sometimes fortunate — 68 during the second round that kept him in the lead at 12 under with Vijay Singh and Stephen Ames.
How did Els handle his holiday break?
“You know what, I just took a rest,” Els said after Thursday’s round. “I need to lose about 10 pounds, but I’m sure we can do that in the next couple weeks. I played with the guys, kept myself sharp, played a lot of golf, social golf at Turtle Creek and places around town (in South Florida), Bear Lakes.
“It’s just a great feeling coming out here. Just want to let it go out here, so it’s a good feeling to be out here.”
During Friday’s second round, Els took a double on the front nine when he knocked it in the drink on the short fifth hole, and appeared doomed for more trouble when he received a gift from the Hawaiian golf gods in the form of an incredibly fortunate bounce.
A bounce off the lava and a new ball.
Just a routine par for @TheBig_Easy. pic.twitter.com/uPN5lGvV0d
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) January 22, 2022
Els was understandably pleased with the result.
“I was surprised, I mean I wanted to hit a little fade on the ball. Man, it faded way too much. Then I got an unbelievable break, break of the week,” Els said. “The ball bounced out of the lava, I got myself in position to play. I got to change my golf ball, there was lava on the ball, so I made four there and that was a two-shot swing.”
The three-day event plays its final round Saturday.
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