BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Ernie Els stored the errors to a minimal down the stretch Saturday and hit wedge in tight for birdie on his remaining gap for a 2-under 69, giving him a share of the lead with Greg Chalmers going into the ultimate spherical of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
Chalmers, the left-handed Australian famend for his placing, had a 66 whereas making solely two bogeys, not a nasty mark on the Harbor Shores course that gave so many matches.
Els, a four-time main champion and among the many better of his era, is in nice place to lastly get a primary main title on the senior circuit. That is his seventeenth senior main, and even he was stunned to be atop the leaderboard.
They had been at 10-under 203.
Richard Bland of England, the LIV Golf participant who received into his first senior main from an exemption class he didn’t know existed, began out at 12 beneath par after which started a fast slide via tentative placing and shot 74 to fall one shot behind.
“I’m lucky sufficient to be up there,” Els mentioned. “You recognize, 10 beneath is main in the meanwhile; 12 beneath was main yesterday. I performed strong. I didn’t play spectacular, however performed strong sufficient to get myself up there.”
There was sufficient wind, troublesome pin positions and hard greens on the Jack Nicklaus design that it took almost six hours for the 83 gamers who made the lower to finish the third spherical.
“Hopefully, we are able to transfer higher tomorrow,” Els mentioned.
There could possibly be a number of motion on the leaderboard. Harbor Shores yielded its share of birdies, notably on the par 5s that had been downwind, but it surely didn’t take a lot for gamers to get out of place and discover themselves scrambling for par.
Even so, it was crowded on the high.
Bland and Chris DiMarco, who didn’t make a birdie on the again 9 in his spherical of 71, had been one shot behind. Richard Inexperienced of Australia had two eagles and nonetheless solely managed a 70 after a bogey on the ultimate gap.
The 4 gamers who had been three pictures behind included defending champion Steve Stricker, former Open champion Stewart Cink and Jason Caron, a former PGA Tour participant and one of many membership execs competing within the Senior PGA Championship.
Chalmers ran off 5 straight birdies beginning on No. 6 to take the lead earlier than his golf received a “little scratchy” on the again 9. It was the management of irons that left him pondering he has an excellent likelihood to seize his first senior main.
“Not tremendous comfy with my driver at the moment, however I used to be very comfy with each different space of my sport,” Chalmers mentioned. “So if I can simply get that squared away for tomorrow, see if we are able to get on the market and compete. Appears to be like fairly bunched up in the meanwhile, so needs to be an thrilling day, hopefully.”
Bland struggled with the wind, distance management and his placing. He made 4 bogeys in a stretch of six holes across the flip — he made par on the downwind, par-5 ninth, which felt like a bogey — and located himself as many as two pictures behind.
He birdied the par-3 seventeenth to get inside considered one of Els and Chalmers, and it gave him a dose of perspective. A part of him is pleased to be within the area. He was not conscious of a one-time exemption for gamers who’ve received within the final 5 years on the European tour.
Bland couldn’t use it final yr as a result of it conflicted with LIV Golf Bedminster. However he was ready to make use of it this yr, and he goes into the final spherical only one shot behind.
“If somebody provided you a shot off the lead in the beginning of the week, in all probability would’ve taken it. Doesn’t fairly really feel nearly as good as that proper now, however simply received to get on with it,” Bland mentioned. “Been round sufficient to know that you just’re going to have some poor days. In fact you might be. However perform a little bit of labor now and simply try to get just a little little bit of simply higher.”
