GOLF/European Tour: Lian-Wei Zhang became the first Chinese winner on the European Tour by ending Ernie Els's quest for a fourth straight victory in the Caltex Masters in Singapore yesterday.
World number two Els led by one shot playing the final hole but ran up a bogey five and then saw playing partner Zhang hole from five feet for birdie to snatch the title and $92,000 first prize.
Zhang carded a closing 70 for a 10-under total of 278, with Els a shot behind and Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng another stroke back in third. England's Simon Khan and Holland's Maarten Lafeber shared fourth on seven under.
"I felt I played okay but I didn't putt well at all," said Els, who carded a final round 73, his worst of the week by three shots.
"Apart from yesterday I struggled with the pace of the greens. And the heat eventually got to me a little bit. I felt a little bit tired towards the end - it was tough.
"I have to take my hat off to Zhang, he stuck in well and didn't make any mistakes really. But the way I putted I let them all in a bit.
"It is always tough to lose like this but it has happened before and will probably happen again."
It is not the first time Zhang, ranked 141st in the world at the start of the week, has taken some famous scalps.
The 37-year-old memorably beat Colin Montgomerie in a Dunhill Cup match at St Andrews in 1998, and beat former Open champion Nick Price on the fifth hole of a play-off to retain his Macau Open title in October last year.
"I am delighted," said Zhang, who will miss next week's Heineken Classic in Melbourne to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his family.
"I have played so many times on the European Tour but never won before.
"When I saw Ernie pull out an iron on the 18th and miss the fairway I knew I had to push very hard. I thought my chance had come.
"I was very nervous when Ernie was putting in case he made par but not so nervous with my putt.
"This is a milestone in my career. Ernie Els is a great player and it was a pleasure playing with him."
Els had won his last three events - the Nedbank Challenge last year and the first two US Tour events in Hawaii in 2003 - and was as short as 7/4 to make it four in a row at the Laguna National.
The Open champion began the day two shots clear of the field and briefly stretched his advantage to three with a birdie on the second.
Playing partner Zhang would not give up the chase, however, and promptly birdied the next two holes to reduce the gap to one shot.
Both players then birdied the seventh before Els three-putted the eighth for a bogey and fell back into a share of the lead at 11 under.
By now it had developed into something of a two-horse race and both Zhang and Els made a hash of the par-five 11th, finding water with their second shots and each making six.
Els re-established his lead with a superb iron shot to 10 feet to set up a birdie on the 12th, but he again three-putted on the 14th to allow Zhang back on level terms.
Zhang appeared to have blown his chance when he bogeyed the treacherous par-three 17th, but Els hit a wayward drive on the last that bounced off a cart path, then a tree, before settling in the rough.
From there he could only come up short of the green while Zhang fired a superb approach over the flag to five feet.
Els hit a fine chip to a similar distance but hit his putt too firmly over a spike mark on his line, and Zhang made no such mistake.
Meanwhile Khan birdied the last to finish joint fourth and make a good start to his bid to avoid a 10th trip to the qualifying school this year.
"I only found out on Sunday that I was in the tournament so it felt a bonus to be here and I thought at the start of the week I would love to finish in the top five to qualify for the next tournament in Melbourne," said the 30-year-old from Essex.
"I played there at the start of my career in 1994/95 on their tour and loved it down there and I'm looking forward to going back.
"I said to myself at the start of the year not to look at money lists because you start to watch what other guys are doing, but this is a big help.
"I played well at the tour school at the end of last year and thought I just needed to carry that on and keep improving."
Top Scores
278 - Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 68-71-69-70.
279 - Ernie Els (Rsa) 69-67-70-73.
280 - Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 73-67-69-71.
281 - Simon Khan (Eng) 66-73-72-70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 70-72-69-70.
283 - Rick Gibson (Can) 68-76-71-68, Andrew Marshall (Eng) 67-73-73-70, Per G Nyman (Swe) 68-76-67-72.
284 - Fran Quinn (USA) 71-70-71-72.
285 - Dean Robertson (Sco) 70-72-75-68, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73-71-71-70, Markus Brier (Aut) 69-71-74-71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73-69-72-71, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 67-70-76-72, Simon Yates (Sco) 68-69-72-76.
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