Els on his way to victory. (Getty Images)
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Ernie Els got the better of Thomas Bjorn yet again on Sunday to win his first solo
World Golf Championships title.
And on a horribly wet and windy day at Mount Juliet in County Kilkenny Els,
nearly £666,000 richer for his one-shot victory in the American Express
championship, also punched another hole in Tiger Woods' season to forget.
By taking the crown with a closing round of 69 the South African relegates
ninth-placed Woods - now without a single stroke play title to his name - to
third on the world rankings.
"There was more pressure on me than anybody and I feel great," commented
Els, who had near-misses in all four majors this year. "Everybody knows what
I've gone through and this is kind of a new start for me. I want to get going
again."
It is less than a month since Woods' five-year reign at the top was ended by
Vijay Singh, but if he wants something to remember 2004 for he may have found
it. There are unconfirmed rumours and reports that he is to marry Swedish
fiancee Elin Nordegren on Barbados next weekend.
Asked if he was ready for some Caribbean sunshine Woods was not about to let
slip anything before leaving Ireland, though. "I'm ready to go diving," he
replied.
Twelve months ago Els had a four and two victory over Bjorn in the final of
the HSBC world match play at Wentworth.
That earned him £1million against the Dane's £400,000 and the difference
between first and second place this time was over £290,000. But do not feel too
sorry for Bjorn - the two runners-up finishes netted him more than
three-quarters of a million.
His 68 was the joint second best score of the day, but it was not quite enough
and Els had the luxury of being able to bogey the last after he had got up and
down from short of the green for birdie at the long 17th and Bjorn had
three-putted for par.
England Ryder Cup debutant David Howell finished third on 13 under, five
behind Els, and his cheque for almost £250,000 was the biggest of his career.
Two more members of Europe's side last month, Darren Clarke and Sergio Garcia,
shared fourth, but another, Padraig Harrington, failed to give the home fans
what they wanted, slipping back from third overnight to joint sixth with Open
champion Todd Hamilton and US Open champion Retief Goosen.
It became head-to-head between Els and Bjorn again once it was clear the
chasing pack were unable to make a charge in conditions that were pretty
dreadful, but not as bad as feared.
The leaders had teed off four hours earlier than originally planned because of
the forecast of gale-force winds and torrential rain.
Els, who took the lead with his Friday 64 and went into the final day two in
front of Bjorn, birdied two of the first three, but so did the Dane.
The gap then came down to one when Bjorn added another birdie at the long
fifth - Els pitched over the green and had to work hard for his five - and both
then parred their way to the turn.
Els' birdie at the par five 10th was followed by a 22-foot putt from Bjorn on
the next and after a bogey at the short 14th had doubled the gap a 14-footer at
the next brought them only one apart again.
Charging his 80-foot eagle attempt on the 17th 10 feet past and missing the
return was the crucial error, but Bjorn had reason to feel delighted as well as
disappointed.
Three months ago, on his last trip to Ireland, he walked off after six holes
and spoke of "fighting demons." His career looked at the crossroads and until
this weekend he had not had a top 10 finish since February.
Now he is thinking big again and, having acted as one of Bernhard Langer's
assistants in Detroit, it will surprise nobody if he is back playing in 2006 at
the K Club. The very place where he quit the course in July.
Woods did well to play all four rounds, having arrived with pain between his
shoulder blades, and his opening 68 was a quite remarkable effort.
His condition improved, but he was able to follow up only with three rounds of
70 and on not having a stroke play title for the first time since his fifth
event as a pro in 1996 he stated: "So be it. I tried and I haven't done it, but
I'm pretty proud just to have gone all four rounds."
On taking Woods' position in the rankings Els said: "Number two is nice, but
I'm still number two. It looks like I've got to chase Vijay now, but I'm in a
much better frame of mind. It's game on."
Singh, winner of five of his last six events, did not make the trip to Ireland
after Hurricane Jeanne damaged his Florida home, but he is due to take on Els in
this week's dunhill links championship in Scotland - and then at the HSBC World
Match Play back at Wentworth.
Els will be trying to set a new record of six victories there - and the final
is on his 35th birthday.
Whatever he achieves in the rest of the season, however, cannot make up for
what happened in the majors.
Denied his first Masters crown when Phil Mickelson birdied five of the last
seven holes to win by one, Els lost the Open by one after a four-hole play-off
against Todd Hamilton and was a solitary shot away from being involved in
another play-off at the US PGA.
The US Open was also a title that got away, although at Shinnecock Hills he
was two off the lead with a round to go and shot 80.
"I was despondent for a while and there was a negative spin on the whole
thing, but from a positive point of view I came close to winning four majors,"
he said. "In three of them I was in there right to the death.
"I've got to feel encouraged about what happened, but obviously being human
and being an athlete you play to succeed and play to win."
Collated final round scores and totals (Gbr unless stated):
270 Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 64 68 69 (£665,520)
271 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 68 69 66 68 (£374,355)
275 David Howell 69 69 66 71 (£249,570)
276 Darren Clarke 71 72 65 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 72 67 70 (£170,816
each)
277 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 69 68 72, Todd Hamilton (USA) 66 69 69 73, Padraig
Harrington 69 69 66 73 (£110,920 each)
278 Tiger Woods (USA) 68 70 70 70 (£85,963)
279 Zach Johnson (USA) 68 71 69 71 (£74,871)
280 Mark Hensby (Aus) 73 73 69 65, Luke Donald 67 71 71 71
281 David Toms (USA) 70 74 68 69, Brad Faxon (USA) 70 68 72 71, Lee Westwood
68 69 71 73
283 Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 70 70 73 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 69 69 74 71,
Stuart Appleby (Aus) 67 74 70 72, Jerry Kelly (USA) 69 73 69 72, Miguel Angel
Jimenez (Spa) 67 68 75 73
284 Paul Casey 72 70 71 71, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 70 70 73
285 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 71 72 71, Barry Lane 69 72 72 72, Steve Flesch
(USA) 67 70 74 74, Stewart Cink (USA) 71 73 67 74, Peter Lonard (Aus) 69 70 70
76
286 Justin Leonard (USA) 68 68 77 73, Bob Tway (USA) 71 70 72 73, Richard
Green (Aus) 72 70 72 72, Carlos Franco (Par) 69 72 75 70, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 68
73 75 70, Paul McGinley 70 75 71 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 70 74 69 73, Thomas Levet
(Fra) 73 71 73 69
287 Chris DiMarco (USA) 69 75 70 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 67 74 73 73, Stephen
Ames (Tri) 73 72 70 72, Jim Furyk (USA) 70 70 71 76, Fred Couples (USA) 73 67 70
77
288 Scott Drummond 69 71 73 75, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 71 75 71 71, Davis
Love (USA) 74 69 69 76
289 Jay Haas (USA) 72 71 70 76, Peter Senior (Aus) 69 74 74 72, Graeme
McDowell 73 70 75 71, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 71 78 70 70
291 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 71 71 73 76, Desvonde Botes (Rsa) 70 72 75 74
292 Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 73 73 70 76, Chris Riley (USA) 70 75 73 74, Chad
Campbell (USA) 70 79 71 72
293 SK Ho (Kor) 71 76 72 74
294 Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 74 75 77, Tim Herron (USA) 73 75 72 74, Scott
Verplank (USA) 71 82 72 69
295 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 71 75 77, KJ Choi (Kor) 71 76 75 73
296 Jonathan Kaye (USA) 70 73 73 80, Charles Howell (USA) 74 73 71 78, Darren
Fichardt (Rsa) 76 71 74 75, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 74 76 72 74
297 Stephen Leaney (Aus) 73 75 71 78
299 Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 75 76 71 77
300 Andre Stolz (Aus) 70 76 75 79
304 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 77 73 80
306 Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 79 76 76 75
307 Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 75 77 76 79
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