Ernie Els takes Hoag Classic lead after two rounds

NEWPORT BEACH — How windy was it at Newport Beach Country Club on Saturday?

The towering pines, palms and eucalyptus trees lining the fairways were swaying in the powerful gusts that reached 30 mph.

It was chilly, too—at least by Southern California standards—with temperatures in the mid-50s, as attested by the stocking caps, gloves, parkas and even earmuffs in the gallery.

“It feels like Scotland, doesn’t it?” defending champion Ernie Els said after posting a 3-under 68 to seize the 36-hole lead in the Hoag Classic at 8-under par, amid the howling, swirling, gusting winds off the Pacific Ocean. (Yes, there were gale warnings and smallcraft advisories if you were out on the water nearby, too.)

“It was a three-layer day,” Lee Janzen said of his golf attire after a 5-under 66, the low round of the day, left him one shot behind Els at 7-under, tied with Retief Goosen (67) and first-round leader Cameron Beckman (71).

“There’s a few greens out there, you’re reading the wind, not reading the putt,” Goosen said. That means the wind was affecting the golf balls in the air and on the ground, sometimes blowing the putts off line.

“The putting was difficult to get the right speed, the lines, but then you’ve got to play the wind into the line on the green,” Els said. “I mean, that doesn’t happen to often. It happens a lot in Scotland, but not in California.

“The wind was blowing (hard). The whole experience was difficult today. To get it under par for the day was kind of my goal and, surprisingly, I’m on top of the leaderboard.”

Beckman began the day with a one-shot lead, thanks to a first-round 64 on Friday, his lowest round in 29 events on PGA Tour Champions. Before Beckman teed off, however, Goosen had caught him by making four consecutive birdies to start his round: 5-foot birdie on No. 1, 20-foot birdie on No. 2, up-and-down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the par-5 3rd hole, then a 4-foot birdie on the par-3 4th.

“Yeah, the first few holes, I suppose it was playing sort of left to right (downwind), so you could make birdies,” Goosen said. “It was a great start.”

Beckman also had a solid start, with a birdie on No. 1 to regain the outright lead and another on No. 6. And when he made the turn, he was 9-under with a three-shot lead. Even so, he never felt comfortable. Not with the tricky winds factoring into every shot.

“This was a brutal day,” Beckman said. “Really, today, the par putts are birdie putts, you know what I’m saying? I made a lot of nice par putts, just grinding it out.”

Beckman finally relinquished the lead after back-to-back bogeys on the par-4 12th and par-3 13th. That’s when he came back to the pack, with a four-way tie at the top at one point. That’s also when Els’ putter got hot, resulting in birdies on No. 12, No. 13 and No. 15 to take the outright lead.

Though he missed a short par putt on No. 17, Els finished with a birdie on the par-5 18th to regain the lead heading into Sunday’s final round, with warmer temperatures and less wind in the forecast.

“I normally play pretty well in these conditions,” said Els, a four-time major champion on the PGA Tour. “I’ve played a lot of golf around the world in links-type conditions.”

“It was just a brutal day,” said John Daly, a two-time British Open champion who shot a 3-over 74, with his long white beard flapping into the breeze. “It was one of those days we should have said, ‘Hey, let’s just not play today.’ ”

Welcome to Newport Beach, Scotland.