AKRON, Ohio — In looking ahead to this week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon, Ernie Els came to Firestone Country Club with some ideas about tinkering with his game. He ended up winning his first major on the PGA Tour Champions.
Els had never found much success on Firestone’s South Course, posting just two top-10 finishes in 26 appearances during his PGA Tour career, but on Sunday he overcame a late error and won the Kaulig Companies Championship for his third victory of the season.
“I've been tinkering with the shaft in my driver on the range and thinking about next week at the Open, trying to get ball flight right, but then doing that, I found some stuff in my swing,” Els, 54, said. “My ball position was way too forward, I brought it back in, just basics, and I really started making good contact on the ball. So I just went with that all week.”
With a closing two-under 68, Els finished at 10-under 270 and beat Y.E. Yang by a stroke. His three wins this year equals the number of victories he collected in his first four years on the senior tour. The win is worth $525,000 and a berth into the 2025 Players Championship.
His resurgence this year has been spurred on by the record PGA Tour Champions success of Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker’s dominating run in 2023.
"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 said. "Steve has been definitely a motivating factor the way he's performed, and some of the other guys."
Yang closed with a 66 after moving into contention with a 64 on Saturday.
Still seeking his first win of the year, Stricker, the defending champion, began the day with a one-stroke lead over Els. He maintained a share of the lead until a disastrous stretch in which he played the 13th and 14th holes in four over par. His 73 left him tied for fourth at 274 with K.J. Choi, one behind fellow Wisconsin product Jerry Kelly. Stricker and Kelly, who shot 69, had combined to win the previous four titles at Firestone in alternating years.
With a 20-foot birdie on the long par-4 14th, Els held the outright lead at 11 under par, but then flared his 4-iron second shot from 222 yards at the famed par-5 16th into the water. He wedged his fourth onto the green and two-putted for bogey to drop into a tie with Yang at 10 under.
A former PGA champion, Yang then gave the stroke back when he pulled his approach from the right rough well left of the green at 18 and couldn’t get up and down for the par.
Two-putt pars on the final two holes secured the title for Els. “It was a bit of a nervy finish at the end, but we got it done,” he said, smiling.
The four-time major winner now heads to Troon for the only major for which he is still eligible. He made his Open debut there in 1989, missing the cut by two strokes, and in 2004 he lost in a four-hole playoff to Todd Hamilton. “It still stings,” he said.
Players in their 50s have made noise in the British Open in the recent past, most notably Tom Watson in 2009 at Turnberry. Els said his game is finally rounding into form. But he stopped short of having too many expectations—even if he has been pointing toward the championship. “Contending? I don't know," he mused. "If I can have couple of good days, get in the weekend and work from there, we'll be great."