Ernie Els claimed his first British Open title in dramatic style at Muirfield, winning a sudden death play-off with French man Thomas Levet at the 18th hole. In fact it had been a four-man play off over four holes, but Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington were eliminated, leaving Els and Levet to battle it out for the title.
Els teed-off first on the sudden death whole, with his iron shot landing sweetly in the middle of the fairway. Levet decided to use a driver but the gamble didn't pay-off, his shot landing in a left side bunker half-way down the fairway. The initiative was now with Els but unbelievably he landed his second shot deep in a green side bunker. Back to Levet, who chipped out safely from his bunker and played his third shot to the green, pitching it about 30 feet from the hole.
The pressure was back on Els and the South African revelled in it; he chipped magnificently from the bunker to within four feet of the hole. Levet now had to sink his 30 footer to stay in with a chance of the title, but his effort just clipped the cup. He tapped in for a five, but Els managed to hold his nerve to land the tricky little putt. Moments later his was joined on the greenside by his wife, father, psychiatrist and caddy to celebrate this most dramatic of victories.
Meanwhile Padraic Harrington had to settle for being the nearly man once more, finishing on five under par, just one shot off making the ply-off for the title. Harrington hit a round of 67, but the Dubliner firmly believes that his day will come.
"I am not disappointed at all at not winning," insisted Harrington. "You only get disappointed when you don't have the answers, and I have the answers. It is only when you don't have the answers that you walk off the golf course with despair at what happened, but I can walk away from this with confidence rather than the other way around."
"I have all the answers and if I can put them together I'll be okay. I am very confident about my future prospects. It is a full package you need to win a major, I just didn't have the putting this week but I felt very comfortable out there and I don't think I need anything else."
Much earlier in the day, Tiger Woods finished his British Open campaign in style with a six-under-par 65, 16 shots better than his disastrous third-round score. But the defending champions grand slam bid officially ended when fellow American Chris Riley carded a 66 to take the clubhouse lead at one-under-par 283.
Woods, who had been chasing his third successive major title of the year, made the most of benign conditions at Muirfield on Sunday morning for an even-par aggregate of 284. Having begun the day 11 shots off the pace following his worst ever professional round of 81 in Saturday's dreadful weather, the American fired an eagle and five birdies to vault up the leaderboard.
Filed by Ciaran Cronin
