Ernie Els lifted his first senior Major championship trophy at the Kaulig Companies Championship on Sunday – and he was particularly pleased with the performance of his driver.
Els finished the week at 10-under 270 at Firestone after closing with a final-round, 2-under-par 68. He managed to hold off South Korea’s YE Yang (66 Sunday) by one stroke.
Despite several near misses, the former World No.1 from South Africa had not yet broken through at a senior major. During his Hall of Fame career, he won two US Opens and two Open Championships.
Els had finished in the top five in the last four Kaulig Companies Championships (formerly known as the Senior Players Championship) and had previously finished in the top 10 at eleven senior majors.
“I’ve just been watching Steve (Stricker) do it the last couple of years since I’ve been out here. He’s been the man, him and Bernhard (Langer) and some of the other guys,” Els said on the Golf Channel broadcast.
“I like to work on my game still. I’m trying to keep myself healthy. … it’s kind of fun still, (to) just try and improve.”
For many years, Firestone was the home of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, a prestigious PGA Tour event, until being selected to host the Kaulig Companies Championship.
Els has never been the winner on that course in all his years as a professional and through dozens of visits.
“This has been a long time coming. On this golf course, 32 years ago I started playing here … but I never got to win here, so this was really, really great,” Els said.
Els fired his final drive of the tournament straight down the fairway and said his XXIO 13 Driver had served him well throughout.
“The whole week I’ve been trying to hit that hard, high cut,” Els said.
“The whole day, too, I had been driving it well. So I had a lot of confidence in the driver, I just had to pull off the shot. I hit it down the left and it was perfect.”
What’s in the bag for Ernie Els?
DRIVER: XXIO 13 Driver, 8.7 degrees, Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 60 TX shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: XXIO X 3-wood, 14 degrees, EvenFlow Blue 6.5 85x shaft
IRONS: 2-5 – Srixon ZX Mk II utility irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft | 6-9 – Srixon ZX7 Mk II irons with KBS S-taper 130X shaft
WEDGES: Cleveland RTX 6 ZipCore Tour Rack wedges 52MB, 56MB, 60LB with KBS S taper 130X
PUTTER: Bloodline Golf
BALLS: Srixon Z Star XV (yellow)
