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| December 10, 2001 | Monday | Ramazan 24, 1422 |
Els leaves it late to break duck
CAPE TOWN, Dec 9: Ernie Els left it late to claim his first official tour victory of the year when he won the Sunshine Tour’s Players’ Championship on Sunday.
The South African world number four carded a final round seven-under-par 65 to give him a share of the lead on 15-under-par 273 with Alan McLean, who then bogeyed the last hole to squander his chance of a playoff.
The win meant Els maintained his record of at least one tour victory every year for the past eight seasons.
“Finally, I’ve won a tournament,” a relieved Els said on the back of a frustrating year which reached its nadir when he lost a playoff to Sergio Garcia at the Sun City Golf Challenge two weeks ago.
“I’ve been pretty consistent over the last six months and I’ve had a lot of chances,” Els said. “ I’ve tried to win every tournament I played in, but it just didn’t work out until now.
“It’s unfortunate for Alan. He led from the word go on the final day. But the pin position on 18 is really tough. He obviously went for the birdie and it didn’t come off.
McLean closed with a 72 to finish in a four-way tie for second place with U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Martin Maritz on 14-under-par totals of 274.
Els began the final round six shots behind overnight leaders McLean and Goosen.
He wasted no time signalling his intent, however, with four straight birdies from the second and another at the par-five seventh to turn in 31.
An eagle at the par-five 11th and a birdie at the 16th took him to 16-under-par, before he slipped back with a bogey at the 17th.
McLean and Goosen struggled to get their rounds going, but McLean was at 15-under with three holes to play, tied with Els, who was watching on the television in the media centre.
At the 17th, McLean pulled an eight-footer for birdie and the outright lead. Then at the par-four 18th, McLean’s second plugged into the left bunker just short of the green, his third finished about 12 feet past the hole and he missed the putt back for par.
Final round scores:
273 Ernie Els 70 68 70 65
274 Martin Maritz 67 67 73 67, Trevor Immelman 69 69 69 67, Retief Goosen 69 66 67 72, Alan McLean 68 64 70 72
276 Bradford Vaughan 68 66 71 71, Omar Sandys 66 70 69 71
277 Darren Fichardt 69 71 65 72
278 Titch Moore 67 70 69 72, Nic Henning 72 68 64 74
279 Roger Wessels 74 67 66 72, Callie Swart 68 69 68 74, Stephen Browne (Ireland) 67 70 68 74
280 Craig Kamps 73 70 72 65, James Kingston 71 72 70 67, Douglas McCabe 73 71 69 67, Jesper Nielsen (Denmark) 72 67 72 69, Des Terblanche 67 66 72 75
281 Doug McGuigan (Scotland) 70 67 77 67, Craig Lile 67 74 70 70, Brenden Pappas 66 74 70 71, James du Plessis 70 69 68 74—Reuters
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