20 years after Els won the U.S. Open, he gets back on the leaderboard.

ERIN, Wis. — A small blimp crashed near the U.S. Open on Thursday, seriously injuring the pilot and grabbing the attention of fans and golfers alike as they watched the fiery, smoking craft fall from the sky into an open field.

Sheriff ’s officials said the pilot was the only one on board. He had some burns, but was in stable condition, according to Pamela Sullivan, a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

“I was teeing off and I looked up and saw it on fire, and I felt sick to my stomach,” Jamie Lovemark said after his opening round in one of golf ’s four majors.

Sullivan said the pilot had been interviewed by detectives from the Washington County Sheriff ’s Office, but the NTSB had not talked to him yet. He had just taken off in a hybrid of a typical blimp and a balloon envelope when he decided it was too windy and planned to return to a private airstrip.

He encountered an updraft on his way down and vented some of the air from the envelope so he could drop back down.

“When he was doing that he heard a sound similar to some of the panels ripping on the balloon,” Sullivan said. “A couple seconds later he said he heard another rip sound. The airship pitched nose down.

“He turned off the manifold, the fuel to the burners. However, the envelope started collapsing and the burners were still burning the residual fuel. The envelope caught fire.”

Sullivan said it’s her understanding the pilot was able to crawl away from the burning wreckage.

The blimp was being used for advertising.