ERNIE Els exceeded his own expectations with a superb 66 to take an early lead in the first round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open on Friday. The 29-year-old South African had not played for five weeks after the Masters in April before arriving at St Leon-Rot to take on the best field in Europe outside the Open Championship. But he showed no signs of rustiness with a six under par round that contained six birdies and no dropped shots in testing conditions in Heidelburg. “I had played seven tournaments in a row before the Masters and my final round 80 there was a contributing factor to taking a five-week break from golf,” Els said, adding “I didn’t know which end of the club to hold when I got here!” Easy Ernie’s score gave him a two shot lead over the rest of the field and with the wind getting up, it was a total unmatched later in the day.