Ernie Els opens season with win at Mitsubishi Electrical Championship

Els completed at 18-under 198 by way of his three rounds at Hualalai Golf Course, edging Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain and Germans Alex Cejka and Bernhard Langer by two strokes. Jimenez shared low-round honors with three others because of a 64 on Saturday, whereas Cejka carded a 68 and Langer tallied a 66.

After a bogey on the par-4 third, Els heated up with birdies at three of the following 4 holes. He needed to accept one other bogey at No. 8, however it was clean crusing from there, because the 55-year-old went 5 below the remainder of the best way.

“I acquired off to a little bit of a sluggish begin, however acquired it going after which bogeyed No. 8 once more,” Els stated. “Alex performed fantastic, Miguel made an enormous run. There have been different gamers making runs, so we needed to preserve tempo with mainly the sphere and that is what we did. …

“Fortunate for me, I saved making huge putts, huge putts on 15 and 16. Then clearly when Bernhard missed his birdie on 18, my putt was slightly simpler, so I rolled that one. However what a battle.”

Els credited the early-season success to a soothing offseason.

“I simply loved myself, you recognize? We went all the way down to South Africa, household and buddies down there, summer time holidays for us. Spent six weeks down in South Africa at Herolds Bay and performed a number of social golf with my buddies,” Els stated. “I solely see them yearly, most of them, so performed a number of golf, drank a number of beer, ate a number of good meals, got here again very wholesome.”

Jimenez got here roaring out of the gate, accumulating six birdies on the entrance 9 earlier than ending with 9 in all. His solely blemish was a bogey on the par-3 eighth.

Jerry Kelly and New Zealand’s Steven Alker ended up tied for fifth at 15-under 201.

Ken Tanigawa ended up 4 photographs off the lead and secured sole possession of seventh place, simply forward of a four-way tie for eighth.

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