09 February 2004	Monday	17 Zilhaj 1424

MELBOURNE, Feb 8: Ernie Els shook his head and smiled ruefully after throwing away an eight-shot lead in the first nine holes before coming back to win a third successive Classic on Sunday.

The three-times major winner bounced back from an outward nine of six-over-par 42 with four birdies in the next five holes to edge out Australian Adam Scott by a shot.

The world number three had been in imperious form at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club earlier this week, firing scores of 60, 66 and 68 to move eight clear of the field.

However he stumbled to a two-over 74 on the final day, finishing at 20-under 268. Scott, who had edged to within a stroke of the lead when he made a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-four 17th, fired a closing 67 in the tournament co-sanctioned by the European and Australasian Tours.

Leading scores(Australia unless stated):

268 Ernie Els (South Africa) 60 66 68 74

269 Adam Scott 66 68 68 67

273 Peter Fowler 66 68 69 70

274 Peter Hanson (Sweden) 67 70 66 71

275 Stephen Gallacher (Britain) 68 68 69 70, Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 64 72 69 70

276 Greg Owen (Britain) 68 72 70 66, Paul Sheehan 66 74 65 71, Mahal Pearce (New Zealand) 65 70 69 72, Gareth Paddison (New Zealand) 67 68 67 74

277 Peter Senior 70 67 70 70, Peter O'Malley 66 69 68 74

278 Richard Green 66 67 76 69, Ian Poulter (Britain) 68 68 73 69

279 Joakim Haeggman (Sweden) 71 68 68 72

Lead Shared

Pebble Beach: World number two Vijay Singh overcame a shaky start Saturday to shoot a second straight 68 and share the third-round lead of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with Arron Oberholser.

Oberholser, who shot a 67, and Singh are on 13-under-par 203, three strokes ahead of Jeff Maggert and the British pair of Phillip Price and Luke Donald.

Phil Mickelson is alone in sixth place on 207.

Leading third round scores (all courses are par-72; U.S. unless stated):

203 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 67 68 68, Arron Oberholser 69 67 67

206 Phillip Price (Britain) 67 70 69, Luke Donald (Britain) 69 65 72, Jeff Maggert 71 68 67

207 Phil Mickelson 68 68 71

208 Tom Pernice Jr. 67 68 73, Bill Glasson 73 69 66, K.J. Choi (South Korea) 67 70 71, Scott McCarron 69 68 71

209 Kirk Triplett 69 70 70, Mike Weir (Canada) 73 70 66, Brian Bateman 69 71 69. -Reuters