European Tour:  Ernie Els is the only one of the world's top four not to have won this year, but he hopes to change that on one of his favourite courses at the Dubai Desert Classic today.

The South African, ranked third in the world, spent January playing three events on the US Tour before travelling to Australia to play in the Melbourne Classic.

His best finish so far is second behind world number one Vijay Singh in the Sony Open in Hawaii, but he is determined to go one better this week. "I'm playing well, but I just have to finish it off," he said yesterday. "I didn't finish the job in the first four weeks that I played. I had chances to win each time and every time I didn't quite do that.

"I feel like I'm swinging well and really hitting the ball well. Everything is there or thereabouts and I just need to make a final package out of it."

Els returned to South Africa for a three-week break and has arrived in the Middle East refreshed.

"I don't take too many long breaks through the season. My next long break will probably be somewhere in June or July when I have two weeks off," he explained. "For the next four or five months, it's a lot of golf with a week off here and there and a lot of travelling. So I needed to do that just to recharge."

Colin Montgomerie, who won in Dubai in 1996, goes in search of the victory which will take him back into the world's top 50 and in line for a place at the first major of the season, the Masters.

The 41-year-old Scot has not missed Augusta since his debut there in 1992, but having fallen to 81st in the rankings last season his first target this year was to get back among the game's elite.

Three top-10 finishes - in Singapore, Australia and America - have lifted him to 63rd and in Los Angeles two weeks ago his second round 64 was his lowest in the States.

"That round has given me huge confidence to build on and I'm very excited about my form," said Montgomerie.

There are just four Irish competitors in the field this week, with Gary Murphy leading the charge in this morning's opening three-ball at 7am in the company of Costantino Rocca and Jose Manuel Lara.

He is joined by Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie and Paul McGinley.