Ernie Els tonight admitted he will be haunted by the putt he missed to win the Open.

The big South African admitted he misread the 10-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole which would have given him the claret jug for the second time in three years.

But he pulled it left and American Todd Hamilton holed his bogey putt to take the championship to a play-off in which Els was the first to crack, bogeying the third of the four shoot-out holes when he missed another makeable putt, this time from 12 feet.

It was that putt at the 72nd hole, however, which was most crucial.

"I'll be thinking about that putt for a while," said Els.

"I had such a good second shot and it was such a weird pin placement where if you were short of the hole you had such a difficult putt. If I knew that I would probably have hit it past.

"I played really well coming in trying to get back into the race and it was a hell of an effort. I had a chance on 18 but I just couldn't get the putt high enough.

"But I didn't play the play-off good enough. I couldn't read the putts. I had my chances but credit to Todd. He hung in there, he played really awesome. It was a good horse race but I came up a little bit short."

Hamilton, meanwhile, stuck by his conservative game plan, not taking on the bunker-strewn fairways of Royal Troon but plotting his way around with precision.

"He had a game plan and I'm sure that's the way he played the whole tournament and he stuck to his guns," said Els.

"I felt I could get more aggressive and take on the par fives. He played conservatively and it worked for him. He putted well and his short game was unbelievable. He played wonderfully. His ball flight is beautiful for this type of course."

Els, who made a memorable hole-in-one at the eighth hole in the first round, was faced with another unique challenge on the 11th hole when he found his ball stuck suspended in the branches of a gorse bush.

"It's unbelievable," said Els, who managed to hack it forward some 20 yards.

"I don't think I've ever seen that happen. I don't know if it's ever happened in a game of golf. It hung on that gorse bush branch. And I was like 'What's going on here?'

"Obviously it was a break because if it went into the bush I'd take a penalty drop. Somehow I got it out of there. I was quite nervous because these guys in the clinics hit the ball like that and they hit it 200 yards. I was just trying to make contact there. I made a great four."

Els then saluted Hamilton, the quiet 38-year-old American whose claim to fame is four victories on the Japan tour and the Honda Classic earlier this year.

"Whenever our paths crossed in the world we always had a quiet chat," Els said.

"I always knew he was a good player and that he wasn't going to back off. He's won some tournaments and whenever you win a tournament in the world you've got to play some quality golf. I knew he was going to be tough."