Els among early leaders

It took Ernie Els just two holes to count himself among the leaders on a damp and chilly opening morning to the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth today.

Three times a runner-up in the European tour’s flagship event – celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and also the tour’s 1,000th tournament – Els did well to save par on the first and then made a 12-foot putt at the short second.

At one under par he was part of an eight-way tie at the top which also included 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and Welshman David Park.

However, current Open champion Ben Curtis, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey all began their challenges with early bogeys.

Curtis three-putted the first, while playing partner Westwood hooked his drive, came up short in two and, unlike Els in the previous group, could not get up and down.

Casey’s mistake was to spin off the green on the 154-yard second, the ball running 30 feet down the hill and leaving him a nasty chip back.

Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke and world number two Vijay Singh were among the later starters, Singh appearing in Europe for the first time this season after a brilliant run in America which has taken him close to Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings.

Many players, Els among them, consider him the best player right now, but the Fijian has made it his burning ambition to climb above Woods.

“I won’t be fulfilled unless I’m there at number one,” he said. “I’ve made a goal that I want to finish my career ranked number one at least once.

“I don’t have that many years to go – five, six, maybe seven – but I plan to do that and I’m playing good enough.”

Singh, now 41, was 25 when he came through the European tour qualifying school at the second attempt in 1988.

“I played with the best guys like Seve (Ballesteros) and Faldo when they were at their best. I wasn’t at their standard at that time, but I learned a lot.

“I also remember seeing Greg Norman in Australia in 1986 or 1987, something like that. He hit a ball on a par three that came out like a cannon and I turned to a friend and said ‘that’s what I want to be able to do one day’.

“I remember thinking about what I needed to do to be where I am now. But I never thought I was going to get here.”

Faldo, a four-time PGA champion, is playing this week, but Ballesteros has not played competitively since last October and has now said he doubts whether he will again because of an arthritic back.

Els added another birdie at the 447-yard third, but up ahead of him Anthony Wall, son of a London taxi driver and a lowly 157th on this year's European Order of Merit, birdied the fourth and fifth.

At three under Wall, whose only win on the circuit came in South Africa four years ago, was one in front of Els, Swede Peter Hedblom and also Lawrie, whose second birdie came on the long fourth.

Els’s fellow South African Trevor Immelman, the winner in Heidelberg last Sunday, did not pick up where he left off – he double-bogeyed the first.