Daly, 58, the winner of the 1995 Open Championship, plays primarily on PGA Tour Champions and has made 11 starts this season, including one withdrawal.
Daly has five career PGA Tour wins.
Also, two-time Open winner Ernie Els left prior to Friday’s round, citing a problem with his back. Els won the Claret Jug in both 2002 and 2012.
The 54-year-old World Golf Hall of Fame member captured his first senior major title, winning the 2024 Kaulig Companies Championship with a one-stroke win over Y.E. Yang, who carded the low final round at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. For Els, it was his third win of the 2024 season in his 13th start, and it also secured him a spot in the 2025 Players Championship on the PGA Tour.
“I’ve been watching my fellow players have a lot of success, like Steve (Stricker) and Bernhard (Langer) and many other players, Freddie Couples,” Els said. “I mean, most of my peers have had more wins than me since I’ve joined here at the Champions Tour, so I really felt I needed to up my game a bit.”
He shot 2-under 68 on Sunday to secure the victory. He will take home $525,000. Yang, who shot 66 on Sunday, earned $308,000 for his effort.
Jerry Kelly placed solo third, and K.J. Choi and Steve Stricker tied for fourth.
Els is heading across the pond to play in the Open Championship next week, or else tonight would’ve been memorable.
“It’s a pity I have to fly tonight, it could have been a big bar tab this evening at the Firestone Country Club,” Els said. “I would have been buying a lot of beers, but we’ll have to wait for another time.”
Threes are potentially wild for the 17th edition of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Threes are potentially wild for the 17th edition of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open when tournament play begins Friday at En-Joie Golf Course.
There is Padraig Harrington, winner of each of the last two PGA Tour Champions events in Endicott. And there is Ernie Els, winner of the most recent two Tour events anywhere.
Those possibilities will assuredly be front and center as anticipation builds through the week of preliminary activity in what will be uncomfortably steamy temperatures throughout Broome County.
One annual highlight of the event will be staged Friday night following opening-round play. That’ll be a concert featuring Luke Bryan, maker of 30 No. 1 hits and five-time entertainer of the year.
“Stunningly spectacular” was applied on this website last year, when Harrington beat up En-Joie’s second nine Sunday — five birdies, one eagle for a 7-under 28 — to complete a round of 9-under 63 and become the event’s first back-to-back champion.
Joe Durant, 18-hole leader by three and Sunday’s pace-setter for much of the back nine, went 64-69-66 as runner-up, a shot better than Els, whose closing bogey left him a 68 and 16-under total.
Padraig Harrington of Ireland holds the trophy after winning the DICK’S Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie Golf Club on June 25, 2023 in Endicott, New York. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
Els won the June 7-8-9 American Family Insurance Championship in a playoff with Steve Stricker, a week after topping the field at the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines (62-68-65). He is a five-time PGA Tour Champions winner with a stellar record at En-Joie.
“We’ve got an interesting storyline. What’s going to happen: Is Ernie Els going to win three in a row? Or is Padraig going to threepeat?” said tournament director John Karedes.
As for which would be more compelling? “I don’t know. You’ve got Padraig, who’s just an awesome guy, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame (June 10), and you’ve got Ernie who I believe has two (top-threes) here.
“We’ve had guys like Ernie and Miguel and Darren Clarke who’ve come just oh so close. Oh, and let’s not forget about the sixty-some-year-old, Bernhard. When I went on social media and saw he’d gone a six-week period and all he could do was chip and putt, I told my colleagues, ‘You guys watch out. If this guy can only work on his short game for six weeks, you think about what that short game is going to be like when he comes back and he starts playing.’ What’d he shoot, 17-under a couple weeks ago?
“This is a course you know he can play well, it’s relatively flat so that should take pressure off any residuals he’s got from the injury.
“There are some great potential stories.”
Odds & ends
— Stephen Ames, who’ll play his sixth Dick’s Sporting Goods Open this week, has won events this season by four- and three-stroke margins, respectively. That ranks him co-first and co-second in 2024. Ames has also built the largest 36-hole lead (three strokes).
— Low start by a winner this year? Els went 10-under 62 in the Principal Charity Classic and Harrington went 8-under 63 in the Hoag Classic.
— Most consecutive years with a win on Tour? Harrington and Steven Alker (2022-24).
Samantha is the first child of Ernie and Liezl Els.
Samantha Els is all grown up.
Remember the PGA Tour commercial – easily one of the best it ever made – from the early 2000s in which her famous dad, the four-time major champions, plays a math teacher adding the scores on a golf card, and Samantha (Sarah in the commercial) answers the question in her Afrikaans accent, “3 under paw.”
Samantha wasn’t just good at math. She went on to graduate from Stanford with a major in human biology and showed off her own penchant as an athlete represent South Africa’s Springbok women’s national team in rugby.
“I like joking with him, I’ll say ‘I have a green jersey now even if you don’t have a green jacket yet,’ ” Samantha told UK’s The Sun.
Samantha, 25, is the first child of Ernie and Liezl and older brother to Ben, who has autism. While he may have demanded an inordinate amount of attention, the following exchange during an interview with Golfweek suggests that Samantha received her fair share of love and affection too.
“She drove the shit out of her,” Ernie said.
“I did not,” Liezl said.
“You did,” Ernie replied. “But rightly so.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CewM63_MKU7/
After graduating from Stanford, Samantha worked in New York City for a year and a half. One time, Ernie visited and saw where she was living.
“I was like, ‘Man, I’m not going to say it, but this is really tough stuff,” Ernie recalled.
Not long after, Ernie got an email from Louis Koen, the head coach of South Africa’s women’s rugby team. He had seen video of Samantha competing for Stanford and the U.S. U-23 team on the internet and invited her to a camp where she’d be considered to train for the Springbok squad.
Samantha had started playing rugby in college. In her first match, she got 27 stitches. Then she cracked an ankle. As the injuries piled up, her dad asked her to stop. Samantha kept playing but not as seriously. When Ernie read the email, he had mixed feelings. Rugby is huge in South Africa and to play on the national team is the highest honor.
Ernie Els lines up a putt for his daughter Samantha Els during the Par 3 Contest prior to the start of the 2016 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.
“I’m looking at this, and I’m like, rugby? This is professional rugby?” Ernie said.
He sat on the email for a couple days without telling Samantha and then asked Liezl to weigh in.
“If she finds out and you didn’t tell her, you’ll absolutely be dead,” Liezl said.
So, Ernie forwarded the email to Samantha. Two minutes later, the phone rang from New York. “She says, ‘Dad, I’m going. Can I go? I want to go.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Ernie recounted.
We’re so proud of your journey and now you’re the first in the family to wear the rugby Springboks colours. Live every day, a dream for Samantha @WomenBoks
Samantha moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where life is a little simpler and quieter, to play a vicious game. She was called up to the Springbok Women’s camp as they prepared for the WXV 2 tournament.
Playing as a utility forward, she was thrown into the starting line-up for the warm-up match against San Clemente Rhinos and enjoyed a winning debut as South Africa triumphed 22-17. She competed in two international tours and played as a part of the winning team of the Rugby Africa Cup. She’s currently sidelined with another injury.
“She’s got a drive, but I feel she just needed to have something different in her life. Sometimes things come to you,” he said. “When this rugby thing came, I was like, maybe this is that opportunity, and it gives you another opportunity, as you say, to maybe do something different. She’s an absolute superstar, that kid.”
“People laugh at me like what the hell are you doing? I feel there’s something there”
ORLANDO — When Ernie Els and his wife attended the 2023 Global Pet Expo in Orlando, Liezl, a self-described dog nut, kept returning to her husband with a different four-legged friend in her arms and, with her best puppy-dog eyes, inquired about bringing that rescue home.
“By the third time the dog was in the car,” said Ernie, giving new meaning to his nickname The Big Easy.
Els had a dog named Hogan as a kid in South Africa and since marrying Liezl has added breeds such as Great Danes, Labradors, St. Bernards, Labradoodles and Frenchies to their various homes in England, South Africa and the U.S. But being dog people doesn’t begin to explain what Els was doing at a worldwide gathering of the pet industry and marketing Ernie Els Champion Pet Treats.
“People laugh at me like what the hell are you doing?” Els said. “I feel there’s something there.”
Indeed, there is. According to the American Pet Product Association, the North American pet food industry dominated 37 percent of the global pet food market and is growing at a compound annual rate of 4.4 percent. In 2021, pet food treats and snacks recorded the highest sales, reaching a value of $50 billion, and are growing at a faster rate than any other pet care category. Similar to an increasing appetite for premium treat and snack products for human consumption amongst consumers, this has filtered through to the pet treat industry. More than ever before, pets are seen as part of the family and pet owners want to feed their animals high-quality pet food.
Ernie Els at a booth for Ernie Els Pet Products. (Courtesy Ernie Els)
As for how Els found his way into this business partnership, it dates to the 2019 Els for Autism Pro-Am, where he played in the fundraiser with friends Sheldon Golub and Bill Deutsch. Golub distributes private-label pet treats while Deutsch is a wine importer, distributor and owner of the Yellow Tail and Josh wine labels. (Deutsch’s son Peter partners with Jim Nantz in The Calling wine label.)
Golub always wanted to have a brand for his pet treats and asked Els if he’d be interested in attaching his name to it. Els and his business manager did their homework and learned that it is a thriving business and put together a business partnership originally under the name Ernie Els Champion Training Treats. They realized the opportunity could be much bigger than just treats and renamed the company and the website Ernie Els Pet Products. Launched in November 2019, the pet treats were being test-marketed in California by Kroger stores when COVID-19 hit. They struggled to get supplies from their distributor but an even bigger stumbling block for the fledging startup was the death of Golub. In 2021, Mark Segal, Golub’s son-in-law, phoned Els and Deutsch and said he still believed there was a great business opportunity to be wrapped around philanthropy and they agreed to move forward.
“The pet industry is bigger than the baby industry,” Segal said. “A very small piece of it is a big business.”
They launched the all-natural dog treats, which come in various flavors such as chicken and beef jerky, at the 2023 PGA Merchandise Show. (These soft, shelf stable treats need to be refrigerated once opened.) Pro shops display it in steel range buckets, and it is available online at Chewy.com, the company’s website (ErnieElsPetProducts.com), and at retailers such as Harris Teeter. A licki mat with a putting green, leashes and collars in four patterns are also available. Celebrity endorsers in the space include Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, and model Kathy Ireland was behind a previous effort.
Zippy sniffs out a treat from Ernie Els Champion Dog Training Treats. (Courtesy Sunshine & Tito)
“It’s a lot like our wine,” said Els, who started his eponymous wine label 20 years ago in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. “If you have a bad wine, people remember you as a brand with a bad wine, so your name gets a big hit. Luckily, we’ve got a good winemaker, got a good setup there and the wine has a following around the world. We want to do the same here. I was like, ‘Well, these (dog treats) better be good. We fed samples to our dogs, and they’re going nuts. So we knew it was good because I could see how our dogs were responding.”
Admittedly, it’s a very different business sector for Els to venture into but he noted there’s more of a connection than meets the eye.
“Almost every single golfer I meet, they all have dogs,” Els said. “You see them walk dogs around golf courses all the time. Maybe not so much in the U.S. because you know HOA rules, but in England, South Africa, Scotland, you see over at St. Andrews after the Open has been played, people walk their dogs after the ceremony.”
It’s not only about the pet business but raising awareness for the Els Autism Foundation. On the back of the bags is messaging on the foundation and a link to the website. A portion of proceeds support individuals and families living with autism spectrum disorder, a cause close to Els’s heart.
“It’s a business paying it forward,” Segal said. “I want to make Ernie the Paul Newman of autism.”
Els was honored as part of the Golfweek Father-Son Championship.
JUPITER, Fla. – Forgive Marvin Shanken if he mixes up the course and the tournament where his pal Ernie Els won a certain PGA Tour event. After all, that’s more than 15 years and several victories ago. For those scoring at home, it was the 2008 Honda Classic. Yet all these years later, Shanken remembers with clarity how he felt when an interviewer asked Els about the Autism Speaks logo on his golf bag. That’s when Els revealed for the first time publicly that his then-6-year-old son, Ben, was on the autism spectrum.
“I was emotionally touched by what he said,” Shanken said.
So much so that the next night, during a celebratory dinner at his home, Shanken asked Els to step outside with him and pitched him on creating a charity pro-am.
“Let’s find a cure for autism,” Shanken said, pausing and raising his hands — palms out — towards Els. “Listen, don’t give me an answer now. Think about it.”
Two weeks later, Els called back. Count him in. Shanken, the editor and publisher of lifestyle publications such as Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado, replied, “Great, you get the pros, I’ll get the amateurs.”
The Els for Autism Pro-am has been a sellout ever since, raising an average of more than a million dollars a year. It’s changed lives for not just Ben but thousands of kids with autism, a lifelong brain disorder that hinders the ability to communicate and interact socially. Inspired by Ben, Ernie and his wife, Liezl, started Els for Autism, a non-profit foundation, in 2009.
They have built the Els Center for Excellence, a 26-acre campus that includes a charter school for students ranging from age 3 to 22. The center has set a new standard for education of children with autism as well as pushing research for future treatment. As part of his efforts to raise both awareness and dollars for his cause, Els lent his celebrity to endorse his own brand of pet treats with proceeds benefiting autism, and envisions a day where his name and face could do for autism what actor Paul Newman did for improving the lives of kids through proceeds from the sale of salad dressing, popcorn, pizza and more.
Els was honored as the 2024 Golfweek Father of the Year at an awards luncheon Saturday at Reunion Resort in Kissimmee, Florida, as part of the Golfweek Father-Son Championship.
Ernie Els celebrates with the winner’s trophy at the 2024 Principal Charity Classic at Wakonda Club in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports)
Since 1983, Golfweek has selected a Father of the Year. In another year, Ernie’s father, Neels, could’ve been the honoree for passing the game that his father-in-law, Ernie, had taught him in his native South Africa. Within two years, Neels was a 3 handicap and helped shape young Ernie into a champion. Thirty years after Els won the 1994 U.S. Open to launch a Hall of Fame career, he has won the last two PGA Tour Champions events to remind the golf world that he’s still got game.
“This is still my first love,” he said after winning the Principal Charity Classic. “I’m 54 now, let’s see where it goes.”
Nicknamed the Big Easy for his graceful swing that looks as if it requires little effort, Ernie was imposing his will on the world’s toughest courses, but dealing with his son’s autism was anything but easy. One in 36 children in the U.S. has autism, with boys nearly four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls, according to a 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ben was born in October 2002, and within a few years warning signs appeared. Initially, Ben started school in England but it soon became clear he needed special attention. Ernie recalls forcing Ben into and out of the car every day for school. His older sister, Samantha, who went on to graduate from Stanford and is playing rugby for South Africa’s Springbok women’s national team, was the first to embrace her brother for the person he is. “She would come to me and say: ‘Mom, why are you trying to change him? Ben is unique,'” Liezl said.
Ernie Els and son Ben connect through golf. (Courtesy Ernie Els)
First, they tried everything from a gluten-free diet to taking Ben to a doctor who practiced naturopathic medicine, which emphasizes the self-healing process through the use of natural therapies, and claimed he could fix anybody. It only brought Ben more pain and made Liezl sweat with fear every time she’d take him for treatment.
“It was breaking us,” Ernie said, noting that the brain development disorder often rips apart marriages. “It hurts as a dad because that’s your son. I was like, I just want a normal kid who can play rugby, wrestle with him, all that.”
“Men want to fix it and women want to nurture,” Liezl said.
After a battery of tests and evaluations, doctors told Els his son had autism. It was a word Ernie and Liezl knew only in the context of Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1988 film “Rain Man.”
“I think it’s fair to say that it took some time to get their head around it,” said Irish pro Paul McGinley, whose daughter was classmates with Samantha in London.
The diagnosis hit Ernie like a cold bucket of water, and he internalized his grief. In time he went from embarrassed to embracing the hand they were dealt.
“Like a lot of people, I didn’t know what the hell autism was. It made a big shift in me. I was like, ‘I’ve got to get into his world.’ I had to find what makes him tick,” Ernie recalled.
The heart of a man is measured in times of strife. Ernie sought a school in the U.S. that could accommodate Ben’s special needs. Ernie bought a house in Palm Beach in 2008 with a big garden, not far from the best charter school money could buy for Ben. Still, Liezl dreamed of a place that could provide more comprehensive support for the autism community. When Shanken visited the school, he warmed to the idea that the kids deserved better. Instead of raising money for research, they’d channel their energy into building a campus for kids like Ben.
Groundbreaking of the Adult Services Building at Els Center of Excellence on April 11, 2022. From left to right: Hazel Shanken, Marvin Shanken, Liezl Els, and Ernie Els. (Courtesy Els Center for Excellence)
Multiple friends describe Liezl as a force of nature. Perhaps her biggest sales job was persuading Ernie that he had a larger purpose in life. Sure, he’d been given a gift to play a game at the highest level, she said; he would always be celebrated as a four-time major winner, but she convinced him that he had been given what she dubbed “a double gift.” She pleaded with him to leverage his platform for a greater good.
“I said, ‘What are you going to do with this? You can go cry and hide your head in the sand or you can use that platform you were given and complete you as a person. You’re now not just a golfer, you’re a humanitarian, you’re a philanthropist, you’re making a difference in the world,’ ” she recounted.
Challenge accepted. They found the land and opened the doors to the main building of the Els Center of Excellence in August 2015. The lower school features a kid’s library, a playground and rooms for music and art that are more whimsically decorated for youngsters. Credit the likes of Conner Sturgis, a grocery-store cashier, and Tour winner Rickie Fowler for the creation of the upper school, which features a tennis and basketball court and a sensory garden.
Nearly 10 years ago, Shanken, who didn’t have any connection to autism beyond knowing Ben before taking up the cause, was checking out of his local Publix and awkwardly asked his cashier if he was autistic. Sturgis was taken aback until Shanken explained that he was affiliated with the Els for Autism Foundation. Sturgis, a teen with a mild case of autism, responded: “When are you going to build the school for older kids like me?”
Timing of the construction of the upper school had been a source of heated debate. Liezl’s dream for kids on the spectrum was one step closer to fruition and nothing was going to delay breaking ground.
Ernie Els with wife Liezl, daughter Samantha and son Ben at home in 2003.
Shanken, however, ran the foundation like his other businesses and stood firm that they shouldn’t start any project until they had the money to complete the job. Shanken and Liezl were at loggerheads. Before their next round of debate at the upcoming board meeting, they would host the annual Els for Autism Pro-Am on March 7, 2016, at Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens. The course features a 113-yard par-3 19th hole surrounded by water to settle bets. All the pros took turns trying to make a hole-in-one. If anyone did, insurance would pay $1 million. Fowler forgot about the shot at glory and had packed his clubs in his car and already changed to sneakers when he was called back to give it a go. Wielding a pitching wedge borrowed from Luke Donald and a ball from Louis Oosthuizen, Fowler took dead aim. Ernie, microphone in hand, called the shot in the air: “Rickie! Rickie! Stay on line!”
It did. As depicted in a video that went viral, Ernie wrapped Fowler in a bear hug and lifted him into the air as those in the crowd, which included Rory McIlroy, lost their minds.
“It’s honestly one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me in golf,” Fowler said. “To have that impact and make something real for all those kids that are going there — how do you top that?”
Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire businessman and longtime friend of Els, tried his best. He matched the $1 million donation on the spot, and they raised another $860,000 that day for a grand total of $2.86 million.
The next day was the board meeting. Liezl smiled and said, “There’s no way you’re telling me no now.” With the money secured, Shanken gladly changed his tune. “I feel obligated to approve,” he said.
Not even a hurricane could prevent the upper school from opening on time in 2017. Nor is that the only profound impact that Sturgis has had on Shanken and the Els Center of Excellence. Once, while out to dinner, he asked Sturgis to name the single-most important thing in his life.
“I was trying to understand inside the world of an autistic child,” Shanken explained. “He said, ‘Getting a job. All my friends are home. They can’t get a job. The luckiest day was me getting a job as a bagger.’ ”
Liezl refers to this as Shanken’s A-ha moment. He told the leadership at the school that preparing the autistic students for getting jobs when they graduate needed to be a bigger priority. They built an $8 million building with vocational labs dedicated to on-the-job training.
Liezl isn’t done yet either. On April 29, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at the Els Center for Excellence that he was awarding $1 million to support the Els campus. The money from the state will support a new recreational complex the center plans to build. The facility would have a swim program, aqua therapy, indoor sports activities and a hurricane shelter for their clients. Ben is in his last year in the upper school and already has begun transitioning to an adult program in the afternoons.
“He’s a 21-year-old man, but he’s going on seven or eight in many instances such as his development, speech and social skills,” said Ernie.
Aerial shot of the Els Center of Excellence, which opened in 2015. (Courtesy Ernie Els)
Golf is part of their connection. The Center for Excellence includes a two-way, 2 ½-acre training facility where students can play with plastic balls and clubs, proof that the game transcends all. Ben’s also big into playing kickball and going to the course with Ernie when he practices at the Bear’s Club, just the two of them. He also enjoys riding in the golf cart when Ernie plays with friends.
“He’ll come for nine holes, sometimes 18. If it’s a little warm, he doesn’t really do well in heat. But we shoot the shit with the guys, talk golf. He brings that language home. He likes to wind up his mom,” Ernie said.
Before he passed away in 2023, former Tour-pro-turned-caddie Lance Ten Broeck used to be Ernie’s partner in matches and they’d take on everyone at the club. “Lance, like me, he’s got quite a mouth. Lance likes to call Ben, ‘Hey, Fokker,’ you know from the movie (Something About Mary). He’s got a bit of that.
“Then Ben loves to travel. He loves flying now commercially. For a long time we had our own plane so we’d fly privately, and always with the big planes, he’s like, ‘I want to go on the big plane,’ and then he found out the big plane had a lot of people and he was uncomfortable back in the day. Now he loves flying. Three or four days out, he starts thinking about the flight, and then he starts asking, ‘Are we flying American?’
‘No.’
‘Are we flying Delta?’
‘No.’
‘What are we flying?’
‘We’re flying United.’ And on his computer he goes and visits United and he starts packing. He loves to keep his bag. He’s quite a character.
“He’s an outgoing, fun-loving, shit-talking boy,” Ernie adds. “His character and personality have come out. He’s the exact opposite of what he was when I forced him into school with Samantha.”
One day in early March, Ben was finishing up lunch when he was told a friend of his father’s had come to visit. “Swing like Ernie,” Ben said with a smile. “Ernie is the Big Easy.” There were a few F-bombs mixed in but those were terms of endearment coming from Ben.
“He has no clue what it means. He just knows it makes other people laugh, unfortunately, and he loves to make people laugh,” Liezl said. “When he gets a smile, he keeps going.”
The Els Center of Excellence has hosted leaders of the autism world for conferences and Ernie and Liezl are constantly being stopped at golf tournaments and even on airplanes for advice about dealing with autism. In February, Ernie flew from Portugal to Miami, and a 26-year-old English male was seated next to him and he and his wife just had welcomed their first child. “He was like, ‘I’m not sure if he’s autistic,’ and I said, ‘Well, show me a picture, show me some video.’ I kind of broke the news to him, I said, ‘I think he has autism, but he doesn’t have it very severe. So just reach out to people and then find out quickly how severe it is and how you can get into that kid’s world.’ “
“First of all, it’s not a sentence,” Ernie said. “It’s going to change your life, and I think it changes your life for the better. But what advice would I give? Get over the shock and get over the initial how did this happen kind of a thing to then really get information quickly and get information from people like us who have been in it for a while.”
The key for Ernie and Liezl? Being on the same page. “Talk, talk, talk,” Liezl said. “It’s OK to be different. He’s different in how he handles Ben and it’s good for Ben. I couldn’t do it without him, and he definitely couldn’t do it without me.”
They’ve made Ben’s well being their focal point while touching the lives of thousands of others dealing with autism who have benefited from the facility along with Ben. Ernie and Liezl could have just used their vast resources for Ben’s betterment, but instead they’ve built a legacy that will last longer and touch more lives in a more meaningful way than anything he ever achieved with a club in his hand. In doing so, he’s become everything Liezl envisioned he could be: a philanthropist, a humanitarian and evenGolfweek’sFather of the Year.
Shanken said Ernie’s mission goes well beyond anything he ever contemplated in terms of making a difference.
“The rest of my life, I’ll be fighting this thing,” Ernie said.
It’s a mission he embraces and gives new meaning to his nickname, the Big Easy.
It took four appearances at the Principal Charity Classic for Ernie Els to get his first win there, with the South Africa native simultaneously earning his first PGA Tour Champions win this season.
“It’s very special,” Els said. “I haven’t won for a while, and I’ve had quite a few chances. But it gets tougher when you don’t get it over the line.”
Els finished at 21-under 195, winning by two strokes.
The 54-year-old had two birdies on the front nine Sunday and three more on the back. He picked up an eagle on lucky number 13, which gave Els the padding needed for the win, even with making par on the final three holes.
“I was lucky enough to make birdie on 11,” Els said. “I didn’t need a very good approach, made a good putt. And then 12, but 13 was big to make eagle late on the back nine, that was key. Got me into a three-shot lead, and (I) kept with it.”
The win at the Wakonda Club marked the first PGA Tour Champions win of the season for Els, who entered the Principal Charity Classic ranked 16th in the Schwab Cup Standings through eight events.
He claimed the winner’s purse of $300,000, which brings his total winnings the $785,017 this season. Els has now finished in the top 10 three times this season, including third-place ties in the Regions Tradition and Chubb Classic and a tie for sixth at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
Els finished two shots ahead of Stephen Ames, the tournament’s defending champion, but it was a close race throughout. Four players were tied for first after finishing the front nine: Ames, Rod Pampling, Ernie Els and Bernhard Langer.
Then, the front group started to split apart.
Ames picked up two birdies to start the back nine, then made par on 12 and 13, and saved par on 14. Els made par on 10, then picked up back-to-back birdies and an eagle on the next three holes to take a two-shot lead. Langer also hit par to start the back nine, then made three birdies in a row before a bogey on 14.
Els’ eagle on lucky number 13 that proved to be the winning shot in Sunday’s competition.
But holistically, he played his best tournament of the year, leading after the first two rounds and hanging on through the final day in Des Moines.
“I had a good game plan,” Els responded when asked about his three-day lead. “I stuck with it all three days. I’ve put the work in and you feel a bit more confident that every aspect of the game is there.
“Then you can just go out there and compete. It was a hell of a week. Everybody played well and just that one hole maybe got it for me. Number 13.”
Els – who thanked the greens staff for the “true championship course” and the weather for cooperating – plans to return to Des Moines.
“We as players love playing here. As long as I can, I’ll come back, especially if I keep winning.”
Ageless wonder Langer, who tore his Achilles tendon while playing pickleball on just four months ago, shot a 63 on Saturday, the 15th time the 66-year-old has shot his age or better on PGA Tour Champions. On Sunday, he shot 68 and tied for third alongside Duval and Pampling.
Steven Alker had the best round Sunday but no one was going to catch Barron.
Just before the start of the final round of the 2024 Regions Tradition, the first of five majors in 2024 on the PGA Tour Champions schedule, Steve Stricker withdrew from next week’s PGA Championship, the second major of the PGA Tour campaign. Stricker was in that field by virtue of his win in the 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
He’s also the two-time defending champ of the Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, but a final-round 69 left him short of an eighth Champions tour major.
Sunday started with Doug Barron and Ernie Els, both chasing their first PGA Tour Champions major title, tied for the lead.
While Els could only spin his wheels, shooting a 1-under 71 to finish 14-under, Barron, who said he woke up at four in the morning but sounded like he didn’t mean to, took control of the event. He followed his third-round 66 – the best round of the day by three shots – with a bogey-free, final-round 68 to finish 17 under and win his first senior major by two shots.
“Today was just a dream come true, beating all these great players,” Barron told Golf Channel on the 18th green minutes after his victory. He was in the final group alongside Els and Padraig Harrington.
At the @RegionsTrad, all champions receive a green bike.
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 13, 2024
Barron, 54, earned $390,000 for the win. The total purse for the tournament was $2.6 million. He now has three victories on the senior circuit.
He praised his putting coach for his success on the greens all week.
“I got one of the best putting lessons from my coach back home last week, and I really got my putter going. I felt like I could make an 8-footer again,” he said. “It was huge because I didn’t hit any fairways. I hardly missed a fairway coming into today.”
Steven Alker was solo second after firing a 9-under 63 on Sunday, the best score of the week by two shots.
Stewart Cink finished tied for third with Stricker and Els. Charlie Wi and K.J. Choi tied for sixth. Bernhard Langer, in his second event back after recovering from Achilles surgery, tied for eighth with Kenny Perry. Padraig Harrington, Brian Gay and Stuart Appleby tied for 10th at 9 under. Harrington was in the final group but posted a final-round 74.
Reigning champ Bernhard Langer will not have a chance to defend his title as he recently tore his Achilles.
Five past major champions, including John Daly, are among the latest collection of golfers to join the field for this year’s Chubb Classic, set for Feb. 16-18 at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples.
Daly, the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 Open Championship winner will make his first appearance at the Chubb since 2020. The perennial fan favorite recorded a hole-in-one at the 2018 tournament en route to an eighth-place finish, his best showing at the Chubb.
Also announced Wednesday as tournament commits: Ernie Els, David Toms, Mike Weir, Steven Alker, and Stephen Ames.
Els, a two-time U.S Open (1994, 1997) and Open Championship (2002, 2012) winner and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has more than 75 professional victories worldwide during his illustrious career. He finished tied for 10th place at the 2023 Chubb Classic.
Toms, the 2001 PGA champion and 2018 U.S. Senior Open champion, finished tied for sixth place at the last year’s Chubb. Including the U.S. Senior Open, Toms has four PGA Tour Champions victories, including two in 2023.
Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, will be the first Canadian to captain the International Team at the 2024 Presidents Cup, which will take place at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec.
Alker, the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship winner, 2022 Charles Schwab Cup winner, and 2023 Charles Schwab Cup runner-up, also has two consecutive Champions victories: last year’s Schwab Cup Championship and this year’s season-opening event, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Ernie Els plays from the fairway on the 18th hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament at Harbour Town Golf Links. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Ames, the 2006 Players Championship winner, is a six-time Champions winner, including four victories in 2023.
They join a group that features World Golf Hall-of-Famers Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie and 2024 inductee Padraig Harrington as well as former World No. 1 ranked players and major champions David Duval and Tom Lehman.
Reigning champ Bernhard Langer will not have a chance to defend his title as he recently tore his Achilles.
Past Chubb champions Steve Stricker (2021), Miguel Angel Jimenez (2019), Joe Durant (2018), Lee Janzen (2015) and Kirk Triplett (2014) have also committed to play in the event. One former winner who won’t be competing is two-time defending champion Bernard Langer. The winningest golfer in Champions history tore his Achilles tendon in a training exercise last week and will be unable to pursue his sixth Chubb Classic title.
The final members of the tournament field will be announced at 5 p.m. Friday. A total of 78 players will compete in the 54-hole championship for a share of the $1.8 million purse. All three rounds will be shown live on the Golf Channel.
Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Chubb Classic, including exclusive hospitality and general admission. All 2024 tournament tickets will be completely digital and will be emailed after purchase. E-tickets can be viewed on either a mobile device or printed out to be scanned at the main gate.
Now in its 37th year, the Chubb Classic is the longest-running Champions Tour event in the same metropolitan area, getting its start in Southwest Florida at The Club Pelican Bay in 1988 and has been at Tiburón since 2021.
Such is the case on the tiny island of Mauritius, a tiny island off the African coast that’s home to about 1.2 million residents and some of the most beautiful views on the planet.
This villa boasts sea, golf and mountain views, all alongside the Ernie Els-designed Anahita Golf Club. When you’re done with 18, it’s easy to dip in the 25-meter pool that could entertain quite the crew of golf buddies.
Located next to the stunning swimming pool, the large open plan kitchen and living space are the heart of this exquisite villa. Each of the rooms has been individually decorated and feature bespoke, locally made furniture throughout.
With beautifully designed spaces inside and out, Villa Extraordinaire is the perfect space to bring the whole family together.
Foreign ownership: access to Mauritian residence permit and a favourable fiscal climate.
And of course, there’s the weather. With temperatures in the summer hovering in the 80s and in the winter still jumping consistently into the 70s, this could be the perfect place if you’ve had enough shoveling.
