Ernie Els served notice to the rest of the world that he has rediscovered his form and will be the man to beat in 1999 by walking away with the Alfred Dunhill PGA at Houghton yesterday. Standing on the 18th green he was handed a cellphone and was somewhat surprised to be talking to South Africa's President Nelson Mandela.
Els said: "I didn't do much talking, I just listened. I mean, what do you say to the man? He congratulated me and wished me well for 1999 and it was great to speak to him again. He's a great supporter of South African sport."
Els fired a final round four-under-par 68, his fourth successive round in the 60s, to win his third PGA title, finishing on 273 (15-under par), four shots ahead of Houghton's Richard Kaplan. A fast finishing Stephen Leaney of Australia was among a group of four players tied for third place at eight-under par. Leaney birdied the last four holes to join the league of nations represented by David Frost (South Africa), Jeev Singh (India) and Steven Webster (England).
Ireland's Paul McGinley fell away with a last round of 76 to finish three over par for the tournament. It was a disappointing end after another encouraging round of 69 on Saturday.
After a dynamic start, Els had a poor year in 1998, dropping from number one to number five in the world rankings, largely as the result of a back injury which effectively removed him as a challenger from both the US and British Opens. But in the warm, dry air of his native Johannesburg, he swung the club beautifully all week, had no problems with his back and few with the rest of the field.
Els began the final day with a two-stroke lead over Kaplan, but by the time he parred the sixth hole the lead was four shots and the tournament was, to all intents and purposes, over.
He started with a birdie at the first and then overpowered the par-five third and fifth holes to be three-under for the round. Kaplan also birdied the two-par fives, but dropped a shot at the short sixth and was reduced to the role of admiring spectator thereafter. Kaplan held himself together remarkably under the circumstances and his second-place cheque of 60,851 Euros is the largest and most significant of the 36-year-old's career.
Kaplan said: "Playing with Ernie was a real privilege. He's a superstar, but he's still one of the boys and we spent most of the time trying to find out what the cricket score was." South Africa were playing the West Indies down the road at Centurion.
But what he does best is swing a club about as well as anyone ever has. In his own, diffident way he threw down the gauntlet to the players above him in the world rankings when he said: "I know I can catch Tiger and the rest because I've got the talent. If you look at my record I played like the world number one for five months at the start of last year and I was number one for two of those months.
"Saying that, there's a lot of good players out there. David Duval is probably the best golfer in the world at the moment, Lee Westwood is second and Tiger probably third. I've got the game, I know that, and I've just got to hang on to this winning feeling."
