Wondering if a golfer has ever been at a golf course on a sultry and serene morning and suddenly felt blanketed in nostalgia? You can put a halt to your curiosity.
Meet Ernie Els, whose nine-hole pro-am Tuesday at the 85th Senior PGA Championship started with a stroll through the clubhouse at Congressional Country Club, where the Big Easy won his second U.S. Open title in 1997. Knowledgeable about the changes to the golf course, the big man from South Africa flashed a warm smile and gushed about the clubhouse.
“There’s quite a few pictures around the clubhouse. That’s not been changed at all. The locker room, the same thing.”
And that is good, very good, because this was also a day to realize just how quickly time has passed. Els said he played in a pro-game group that included a 27-year-old man and that was Els’ age 28 years ago when he won the U.S. Open here at Congressional.
That year, Els’ parents, Neels and Hettie, walked along as their son captured his second U.S. Open in a four-year span. All of it hit Els. How he was 27 when he won, the same age as his pro-arm colleague. And how Neels was 55 that year, the same age that Ernie is now.
“Time,” he said, shaking his head, “has gone so fast.”
There was a time years ago, said Els, when he watched some senior golf, but he was a dynamo on the PGA TOUR, so much younger than he is today, “and I was never thinking I’d be playing.”
But here he is, seven times a winner on the Champions Tour and on the eve of his fifth Senior PGA Championship.
“It’s kind of a process that you stay in (with competitive golf). All these years, we’re still in the process, trying to get better at something.”
