Ernie Els not off to strong start at BMW Asian Open

So yesterday I wondered what Shanghai would have in store for Ernie Els, and today we have our answer.

Els is struggling at the BMW Asian Open.

Maybe those back-to-back overnight flights from Hilton Head to China, combined with no practice rounds, are taking their toll on the South African.

He fired a 1-under 71 today and is five shots back of leader Raphaël Jacquelin. Not bad, you say. But Els of late has been struggling with what I call “mini-collapses” in his rounds: streaks of bad play that, while not disasterous, still disrupt any momentum he previously had been building.

Example? He birdied the par-4 seventh and par-5 ninth today and had a lot of momentum into the turn. Then came back-to-back three puts for bogies on the par-4 10th and par-4 11th.

Still, Els doesn’t seem to worried.

“I played good enough,” Els told Europeantour.com. “I three putted the 10th and 11th, but really played quite nicely. Missed quite a few putts, misread a few putts.”

He continued: “The wind was blowing quite a bit and affected the ball quite a lot of the time. Anything under par today meant you played good golf. I thought the golf course was playing quite tough.

“I just didn’t want to shoot myself out of it. I had some chances. I could have been three under easily and missed chances coming in but we have three days left and I have to keep going.”

Maybe the world’s No. 5 can turn things around tomorrow.