Ernie Els Takes British Open By Storm

Ten years from his last victory Ernie Els stunned his colleagues and golf insiders to win the coveted 141st Open championship.  The 42-year-old South African, same age as last year's winner Darren Clarke, triumphed after Adam Scott suffered a nightmare collapse over Royal Lytham's closing stretch.

Scott who was chasing his first major, looked all set to become the first Australian to hold the Claret Jug aloft since Greg Norman in 1993 when he led by four shots with only four holes to play. But he bogeyed them all and Els, having made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final green 20 minutes earlier, suddenly found himself with a fourth major title without even having to go into a play-off. As Nick Faldo said: "Well done Ernie Els but Adam Scott is going to be scarred for life." Els said: "I'm just all numb at the moment. He's a great friend of mine. Obviously we both wanted to win very badly for different reasons and I really feel for him.

"It's the nature of the beast. That's why we are out here. You win, you lose and it was my time. "I was hoping at best play-off. When I was on the 17th green he was on the 16th tee and, as we all know, it's not the hardest hole."

Scott, whose caddie Steve Williams won 13 majors with Tiger Woods, had allowed the gap to come down to two by failing to get up and down from a bunker on the 15th. He then three-putted the next and while playing the 17th would certainly have heard the roar - the loudest of the week - for Els's last green putt for a 68 and seven-under-par aggregate of 273.

The "Big Easy", second at Lytham in 1996 and third in 2001, almost resigned himself to another near-miss. But things were about to change far more than he anticipated. Scott pulled his approach into the rough, and when he drove into more sand down the last and had to hack out, Els had one hand on the trophy.

His Presidents Cup team-mate played a superb third to eight feet, but the par putt to force extra holes was pulled wide and that was that. Having stood 11 under earlier in the day, he signed for a 75 and six under.

Woods, who also finished poorly in addition to taking a triple bogey, tied for third with fellow American Brandt Snedeker three shots further back, while Scott's playing partner Graeme McDowell ended up fifth with world number one Luke Donald.

In his winner's speech Els told the crowd: "I had a lot of support this week. But you guys have got to ask yourselves the question were you just being nice to me or did you actually believe I could win?".  In true Ernie El style, he gave a big shout out to Nelson Mandela during his search, saluting the former South African leader for his contribution to sports in South Africa

Many thought his best days were long behind him and he did not even qualify for The Masters in April. Scott retained his composure admirably but must have been devastated inside.

"I'm pretty disappointed," he said. "I had it in my hands and managed to hit a poor shot at each of the closing four holes. "I'm very, very disappointed, but I played so beautifully for most of the week I certainly should not let this get me down. "Surprisingly I was incredibly calm and I still am. I thought I could roll that last putt in, but I didn't and that's golf."

Scott was on the verge of becoming the sport's 10th successive first-time winner in the majors, but while that has now ended another run goes on - Els is the 16th different winner in a row.

Now with two Opens to go with his two US Opens, his front nine contained bogeys at the second and ninth and not a single birdie. That left him six back, but he hauled himself back into things with birdies at the 10th, 12th and 14th to set up the remarkable climax.

McDowell was always playing catch-up and could not recover from bogeys at the second and sixth, the second of those seeing him take two in the same bunker that gave Woods so many problems. The 14-major champion - still to add to that tally since the 2008 US Open - almost hit himself as his first attempt to escape came back off at him.

Officials checked the video to make sure there was no contact, but he then had to play his next crouched on the grass way above the ball. He did wonderfully well not to leave it in again, but the ball shot across the green off the face and from there he triple-bogeyed to fall seven behind.

It was the first time he had dropped three shots on one hole in a major since he lost his opening drive at Sandwich in 2003. The real killer blow for McDowell came with a six on the reachable long next - he lost his second in the bushes - that put him six adrift.

Woods and Els were up into joint second at that point, but the former found bunkers on the 14th, 15th and 16th and that ended his hopes. For Els it was a different story. A very different story. An unbelievable one, in fact.

Live From 141st British Open: Leaders At A Glance

The 31-year-old American pushed the lead to 10 under with another course-record-equalling round for an Open at Lytham. Snedeker was four clear of first-round leader Scott, an afternoon starter, and eight clear of the next group in the clubhouse at two under par.

Luke Donald shot 68 to edge to two under alongside American Steve Stricker (71) and New Zealander Steven Alker, while Rory McIlroy carded a five-over 75 to slide to two over. Only the top 70 players and those tied for 70th will make the cut which is hovering between two and three over par.  American Phil Mickelson (78) and England's Paul Casey (79) both finished on 11 over par. England's Simon Dyson finished one under after a 67 and Padraig Harrington shot 72 for two over but Rickie Fowler, who also took 72, was flirting with the cut at three over.

Snedeker had six birdies and six straight pars to finish and has not leaked a single bogey after carding a 66 on day one. "I'm sure everybody in this room is in about as much of shock as I am right now," he told a news conference after his second round.

"My mantra all week has been to get the ball on the greens as fast as possible. Once I'm on there I have a pretty good handle on the speed of the greens.

"I'm just going to try and keep doing that over the weekend."

Donald kept himself in contention by swapping three bogeys for five birdies, including three in a row from the fourth.

"Again, it was a pretty solid round, tee to green," said Donald, who was without regular caddie John McLaren as he dashed to London to attend the birth of his first child. "The difference between yesterday's and today's round was I holed a few more putts.

"Still the only disappointing thing probably was I gave myself a lot of opportunities from 100 to 150 yards with the greens being pretty soft, not much wind. I wasn't quite sharp enough, hitting a lot of shots from that distance to 25 feet, and I felt like I could have created some more opportunities that way. "I'm certainly feeling more and more comfortable. Obviously where I am in my career I need to be contending. "

 

McIlroy, who began the day three under, said the turning point was the double bogey he made after taking two to get out of a greenside bunker on the short ninth and running up a double bogey.

"It wasn't the best day out there," he said. "I was doing pretty well just to hang in there around par on the front nine. And making a double, I couldn't really recover from that. I wasn't committing to my tee shots and I was in two minds a few times about what shots to hit off tees." The 23-year-old revealed afterwards he had paid for a hotel night for the man he hit on the head with a wayward drive and his friend. The pair, who were planning to camp, also received about £100 for dinner.  "I thought it was the least I could do," said McIlroy, who gave the youngster a signed glove at the time. "I didn't want him sleeping the night in a tent when he's got a massive gash in the side of his head."