Ernie Els finished in a share of sixth on Sunday in the PGA Tour Champions event, the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands Golf Club in The Woodlands, Texas.
Els was in contention throughout, and he closed with a level-par 72 to finish the 54 holes at six-under-par. That was nine strokes behind the winner, Steven Alker of New Zealand. Alker, on 15-under, beat Steve Stricker by four shots, with Colin Montgomerie and David Toms in a share of third on eight-under.
Retief Goosen finished in a share of 33rd on three-over,
After bright starts for Erik van Rooyen and Deon Germishuys, both fell away over the weekend on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour to finish in a share of 33rd and 61st respectively.
Van Rooyen was right in the picture in a share of second heading into the weekend, just a shot behind the eventual winner, Tony Finau. But he closed with rounds of one-over 72 and three-over 74, and his final round had five bogeys and a double-bogey as he slid right out of the picture. Finau beat back the challenge of world number one, Jon Rahm.
Garrick Higgo, MJ Daffue and Dylan Frittelli all missed the cut.
Germishuys tumbled down the leaderboard with rounds of three-over 75 and two-over 74 on the weekend. He was one of only two South Africans to make the cut, as Justin Walters finished a stroke behind him on three-over for the tournament in a share of 65th.
On the LPGA Tour, Ashleigh Buhai finished in a share of 33rd after a poor opening round of five-over-par 76 in the JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles. The tournament was won by Hannah Green of Australia in a play-off from Xiyu Lin on China and Aditi Ashok of India. Paula Reto missed the cut.
