PEBBLE BEACH — Ernie Els has won 73 professional golf tournaments on seven tours and in countries from Scotland to Dubai and Germany to Eswatini. He’s now 18 holes from his first victory on the Monterey Peninsula.
The South African two-time U.S. Open titlist shot a 2-under 70 on Saturday and leads Dicky Pride by one shot and five players, including two other former U.S. Open winners, by two shots at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Els, 50, playing in his ninth PGA Tour Champions career event, has a 9-under-par 135 total.
Pride, whose most recent of two career pro victories was in 2015 on the Web.com Tour, had a 70 and is 8-under.
Retief Goosen and Jim Furyk, also former U.S. winners, are among the chasing group two strokes back at 137.
“I felt really good; my warmup was good,” said Els. “But it was pretty tough because we started on the back nine and the wind was really up, and playing the back nine in a north breeze, a lot of the holes were going into the wind and club selection got very tricky.”
Els, who had three birdies and one bogey in his second round, won his first PGA Tour Champions title, the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, in March.
“There’s so many big names here,” Els said. “Obviously Freddie (Couples) loves the course. There’s a lot of names up there, Retief’s up there, Jim Furyk’s up there. There’s some really quality players and a lot of other players.
“So I can’t be looking at them. I know what I need to do. I need to play a really good, solid round of golf and if I do that, we’ll see what happens. It should be exciting.”
Goosen, 51, who joined the PGA Tour Champions circuit in February 2019, had a second-round 68. He’s also a two-time U.S. Open winner.
Furyk, 50, who won the 2003 U.S. Open, shot a 73 after a back-nine collapse. Furyk had a one-shot advantage after an opening-round 64.
Despite the combined five U.S. Open titles between Els, Furyk and Goosen, none of the three qualified for the country’s national championship this week at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York.
Fred Couples (67), Cameron Beckman (72) and Stephen Leaney (72) are also 7-under.
Beckman, who doesn’t have any status on the PGA Tour Champions, is playing in his third straight tournament as an open qualifier.
Furyk, who held a one-shot lead over three players after an opening-round 64, appeared on his way to another stellar round. He had four birdies in his first seven holes and moved into the five-shot margin at 12-under.
But Furyk, the 17-time PGA Tour winner who also finished second in the U.S. Open three times, quickly faltered. Furyk was four over par on his final seven holes, including a double-bogey on the 18th.
“In a worst-case scenario I should be in shouting distance of the leaders tomorrow,” said Furyk. “I’ve got a chance to go out and win a golf tournament, so I’ve got to look at the bright side and not dwell on 17 and 18.”
Furyk turned 50 in May and won the Ally Challenge in his PGA Tour Champions Tour debut in August. He finished tied for 29th last week at the Safeway Open in Napa, the PGA Tour season opener.
After his tee shot and first fairway shot on the 18th, Furyk hit his third into the Pacific Ocean. He reached the green with his fifth shot and two-putt for his double bogey.
“I just didn’t really commit to three of the shots on 18,” Furyk said. “The drive was into the wind and I just tried to hit kind of a little fade and fairway finder and kind of just pulled that just a bit.
“I was very lucky to find the ball and was able to hack it out and kind of save a shot basically there, but from there made another mess of it. I probably should have just laid that ball up. I had a very difficult up-and-down and was able to knock in about a 6 or 7-footer, so I stopped the bleeding a little bit.”
Mike Weir, whose 65 was the second round’s lowest score, is alone at 6-under 138.
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PURE Insurance Championship update: Ernie Els 18 holes away from first victory at Pebble Beach - Monterey Herald
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