A week that began with Ernie Els sitting in economy ended with him celebrating one of the most dramatic victories of his illustrious career.

The 35-year-old South African's 58th professional win came when he sank a curling 18-foot eagle putt on the 547-yard final hole of the Dubai Desert Classic and then saw long-time leader Miguel Angel Jimenez three-putt the same green.

A play-off looked the best Els, winner of the title in 1994 and 2002, could hope for when he came to the last tee in third place - behind Jimenez and Welshman Stephen Dodd.

The Ryder Cup Spaniard was favourite to win when he hit the green in two. But he was 70 feet away - and after not reading enough break, he was left with a six-footer.

Els, meanwhile, crunched a huge drive and had only 178 yards left. With the flag close to the lake, nobody had eagled the hole all day. But the world number three hit a towering six-iron and got the line of his putt exactly right.

Suddenly Jimenez's putt was to stay alive - and when it missed Els, who was in contention for all four majors last season and did not win one of them, had this time grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

"Phew, man," he said.

"I'm lost for words. I tell you. This is definitely a big win for me, especially the fashion I won it in.

"In the last three or four years I've won a lot and lost a lot. This is one I pulled out of the hat - a nice change for me."

A problem with his flight to the Middle East had left multi-millionaire Els with no choice but to take the middle seat in economy - and after his win he joked: "You know what they say. Start in the toilet and end in the penthouse."

Superstitious though he is, he does not intend to make a habit of such travel. But he does like the fact that on the two previous occasions he picked up this trophy he went on to land a major in the same season.

Els' closing 68 gave him the £191,477 first prize with a 19-under-par total of 269 and left Jimenez and Dodd - round in 70 and a superb 66 respectively - sharing second.

Colin Montgomerie was fourth, not quite enough to take him back into the world's top 50, and so he will play in China in two weeks' time still trying to grab a place in next month's Masters.

Jimenez has suffered bitter disappointment at the Emirates before. In 1996 Montgomerie hit a driver off the fairway on to the last green to pip him.

"I know what he's going through right now, and it's not nice," said Els.

Dodd, British amateur champion back in 1989, paid 10 trips to the European Tour qualifying school before finally tasting success in the Volvo China Open in November.

The 38-year-old from Cardiff, still only 184th in the world, beat playing partner Montgomerie by three - and it was very nearly enough to give him another win.

"I felt a lot more relaxed than I did in Shanghai," he said.

"Monty was great to play with, and we had a bit of fun."

"I'm quite surprised I scored so well. I played quite poorly in the third round. But you just get days, and I holed a lot of nice putts."

On the last three greens, he found the target from seven, 12 and seven feet - but only the last of those was for birdie.

Montgomerie said: "I played well, but they played better.

"It was a golden opportunity to win. But my last five tournaments have been super, and I've just got to start holing some more putts. I'm hitting it really well."

Fellow Scot Stephen Gallacher had the third hole-in-one of the week, acing the 188-yard fourth. There was no prize on offer, however.

Meanwhile, Justin Rose has confirmed that for the time being at least he has handed in his membership of the European Tour to concentrate full-time on the American circuit.

The 24-year-old, fourth in the 1998 Open as an amateur and halfway leader of the Masters last April, has fallen to 79th in the world rankings - and because he is not currently exempt for the majors or world championships, he does not want to commit to 11 European events.

A spokesman for his management company said that the membership will be taken up again as soon as he climbs back into the top 50. Rose needs it to be eligible for next year's Ryder Cup, qualification for which starts in September.

Collated final-round scores (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

(x) denotes amatures

269 Ernie Els (Rsa) 66 68 67 68 (£191,477)

270 Stephen Dodd 70 65 69 66, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67 65 68 70 (£99,785 each)

272 Colin Montgomerie 70 67 66 69 (£57,444)

275 Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 68 69 68 (£48,712)

276 Nick Dougherty 69 70 69 68, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 70 68 69, Lee Westwood 70 68 67 71

277 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70 68 69, David Howell 67 71 69 70

278 Steve Webster 72 69 72 65, Ian Garbutt 72 67 72 67, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 72 68 71 67, Paul McGinley 70 71 69 68, Jamie Donaldson 70 68 69 71

279 David Mackenzie (Aus) 70 72 70 67, Marten Olander (Swe) 70 70 70 69, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 69 72 69 69, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 70 71 66 72, James Kingston (Rsa) 69 68 69 73, Bradley Dredge 70 68 68 73

280 Richard Green (Aus) 71 70 72 67, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 73 71 67, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 72 69 68, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 66 73 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 69 68 73 70, Anthony Wall 70 71 69 70, Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 68 70 68 74

281 Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 72 71 70 68, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 70 70 72 69, Sam Osborne 68 71 72 70, Gary Emerson 72 69 70 70, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 71 70 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 74 70 67 70, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 70 70 70 71, Steven O'Hara 70 72 68 71, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 70 68 71 72, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 70 70 69 72, Peter Fowler (Aus) 69 69 69 74

282 Gary Evans 74 68 71 69, Ian Woosnam 74 69 70 69, Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 74 67 70 71, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 69 70 72, Barry Lane 73 71 66 72, Phillip Archer 72 66 71 73, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 70 68 70 74

283 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70 73 69, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 71 69 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 70 72 72, Graeme Storm 72 70 69 72

284 Andrew Marshall 69 71 75 69, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 73 69 72 70, Stephen Gallacher 72 71 71 70, Alastair Forsyth 70 71 72 71, Simon Dyson 71 70 71 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 69 69 72, Ben Curtis (USA) 70 71 70 73, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 72 70 68 74

285 Santiago Luna (Spa) 74 70 72 69, Matthew Kent (Rsa) 74 69 72 70, David Carter 72 70 71 72, Sandy Lyle 71 70 71 73

286 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 72 70 74 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 74 71 71, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 74 70 71 71, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 70 72 72, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 69 73 71 73

287 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 73 70 73, Gordon Brand Jnr 74 70 70 73, Lee Slattery 73 71 69 74, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 71 73 67 76

288 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 71 76 69, Raymond Russell 72 70 74 72, David Park 71 72 73 72, Fredrik Henge (Swe) 72 72 70 74, Damien McGrane 71 69 73 75, Paul Broadhurst 73 71 66 78

289 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 70 72 73 74

290 Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 69 73 73, Jonathan Lomas 73 70 69 78