Ernie Els was in upbeat mood after finishing third at the United States PGA Championship on Sunday, sensing he is close to giving world number one Tiger Woods a run for his money. The 37-year-old South African, six strokes behind leader Woods at the start of the final round, signed off with a four-under-par 66 in steamy conditions at Southern Hills Country Club.
World number one Tiger Woods will have history on his side heading into the final round of the 89th PGA Championship after a solid one-under par 69 in the third round of the year’s final Major. Woods is hoping to win his first Major of 2007 after falling short in the Masters, British Open and US Open.
Tiger Woods fired one of the greatest rounds of his career, a seven-under par 63 that missed by an eyelash being the lowest round in Major history, to grab the lead on Friday at the PGA Championship. Woods lipped out a horseshoe heart-breaker on a 15-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to miss setting a record-low Major round.
John Daly fired the best round of his troubled season without even a practice look at the course but it was England’s unheralded Graeme Storm who took the first-round lead at the PGA Championship. Storm, a 29-year-old European Tour player who worked in a cream-cake factory when golf could not pay the bills, proved he was no cream-puff on Thursday.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen will try to recapture the magic this week at the 89th PGA Championship over the same Southern Hills Country Club course where he won his first Major title in 2001. Goosen, who shared second at this year’s Masters, captured the 2001 US Open by taking an 18-hole play-off with Mark Brooks by two strokes.
Ernie Els, coming off a fourth-place effort at the British Open, is struggling to find the finishing touches of form that would make the difference between good rounds and a fourth major title. The 37-year-old South African prepares to tee off on Thursday in the 89th PGA Championship with a sense that he is playing well but not quite well enough.
Golfers might call it the 89th PGA Championship, but promotional posters hype this year’s final Major event like a boxing match — ”Tiger vs Southern Hills”. Forget the other 155 starters. Forget the fact that first-time Major champions have captured this year’s three prior Majors, taken five of six prior Majors at Southern Hills Country Club and won seven of the past 12 PGA Championships.
A car buried half a century ago in a time capsule had been transformed into a hunk of junk by the time it was unveiled on Friday as part of Oklahoma’s Centennial. The concrete vault was built in 1957 and meant to be opened this year to celebrate Oklahoma’s Centennial as an American state.