Ernie Els won the WGC CA Championship with a nerveless 66 in the final round at TPC Blue Monster at Doral.
The popular South African who failed to win a tournament
last season managed to see off fellow South African Charl Schwartzel by four shots. Schwartzel had been in the hunt for most of the round but fell away near the end of the round.
The turning point of the round came at 14, where Els was
only one shot ahead and standing over a 25ft par putt. But he managed to slip the ball into the front of the hole to keep his advantage. This was a body blow that Schwartzel failed to recover from, as he bogeyed two of the final four holes.
It's the first time that Els has won since turning 40 and sets him up for a potentially excellent year with all four Majors ahead of him.
"This means so much," Els said. "I didn't think it was ever going to happen again. But I felt all week that the work that I did, that I finally had to trust it at some stage, and there's no better day to really test yourself."
The South African pairing finished well clear of the rest of
the field. Padraig Harrington who had hoped to be involved near the end finished with a disappointing 72 to finish seven shots short of Els.
Australian Alistair Presnell had the round of the day with an eight-under-par 64 to finish in a tie for sixth. With two WGC events now over, for the first time ever, neither winner has been American.
Final Leaderboard 1 Ernie Els 68 66 70 66 270 $1,400,000 2 Charl Schwartzel 67 70 67 70 274 $850,000 T3 Matt Kuchar 71 71 67 68 277 $426,666 T3 Martin Kaymer 70 72 66 69 277 $426,666 T3 Padraig Harrington 70 68 67 72 277 $426,666 T6 Alistair Presnell 72 70 72 64 278 $214,300 T6 Graeme McDowell 74 68 70 66 278 $214,300 T6 Alvaro Quiros 72 69 69 68 278 $214,300 T6 Paul Casey 69 72 68 69 278 $214,300 T6 Bill Haas 71 66 70 71 278 $214,300
Note: Player scores in bold signifies Titleist ball usage only
