South African legend Ernie Els rolled back the years on Thursday to card an opening round 70 in the first round of the US Open, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
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Els is a two-time US Open winner, the second of his victories coming 20 years ago, and started like it as he found himself two under after five holes.
The Big Easy received recognition for his off-course work with a ESPN Sport Humanitarian Award nomination but let his clubs do the talking as he safely navigated the difficult par 3 sixth before two birdies to close his front nine and move to the 10th tee four-under.
Els made six straight pars to keep his name on the first page of an American-dominated leaderboard and then survived what commentators called ‘as close to a shank without being one’ on the tee on the par 3 16th. Rattled, he hit his drive on 17 fat but his ball did not find the fescue rough and he was left with a lengthy approach. Again, his mishit the ball and finished well short before a shakey chip gave him an outside chance for par which he missed.
Despite a bogey on the last, Els left the 18th with a smile on his face and just four off the lead but he will be hoping to iron out some of those late round jitters ahead of his second round or he will face calamity on Friday.
Els’ round was brilliant in comparison with world number one Dustin Johnson, who made a number of errors and was forced to endure a cold putter en route to an opening 75. At +3, the defending champion is by no means out of the running but will need to come out firing on Friday if he wants to make a dent in Rickie Fowler’s lead.
Playing alongside Johnson was Jordan Spieth, who cut a frustrated figure as he missed a number of putts before settling for an opening 73.
Earlier, Thomas Aiken shot 71 to sit in 13th place while Branden Grace made three bogey from holes 10-15 to finish level in his opening round. Grace shot a front nine 33 which included one bogey but failed to make another birdie on the back nine and dropped back down the leaderboard just when he looked like he would be making a strong push in the right direction.
At the time of writing, Oliver Bekker was -1 after 6 in his Major debut.
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
