Montgomerie faces Westwood in final

Lee Westwood dramatically won the last three holes with birdies to beat world number two Ernie Els and set up an all-British final against Colin Montgomerie at the Cisco World Match Play championship at Wentworth today.

The 36-hole final began this afternoon, but was not likely to be concluded until tomorrow because of yesterday's six-and-a-half hour rain delay.

Montgomerie kept alive the dream of an incredible fifth victory in his last six visits to the West Course by beating Masters champion Vijay Singh five and four in his semi-final.

The defending champion, also the winner of the last three Volvo PGA championships on the course, then had to wait two hours to discover who he played in the final - and it was not the man everybody expected with three holes to play.

But Westwood, two down after Els had birdied the 33rd, wedged to six feet to win the next and then took the long 35th as well when he holed from eight feet and his opponent missed from six.

That error seemed to live with the South African because worse was to come on the last.

He was on in two and Westwood right of the green. Els putted up to two feet and the Worksop player left his chip eight feet short.

Again he holed, though, and incredibly Els lipped out and so crashed to defeat.

The final therefore was between the man who has been Europe's number one for the last seven years and the man who is leading the race to end his reign.

Montgomerie, three up on Singh overnight, played the last four holes of the first round in two under par to complete a marvellous eight-under 64 - and struck a vital blow 'against the head' on the 18th.

He was 15 feet from the flag in three and Singh was less than five feet away, but he holed and the Fijian, winner of the title in 1997, missed.

Instead of being only two up Montgomerie was four clear and Singh was able to cut that only by one when he went to the turn in 33 after they teed off again 15 minutes later.

Montgomerie then nearly holed in one at the 10th, as he had in the first round yesterday, and a birdie at the long 12th effectively settled matters.

Montgomerie had set a tournament record 61 in his quarter-final win over Padraig Harrington and finished that game at a record-equalling 15 under. He was 11 under against Singh.

Westwood and Els resumed on the 13th with the South African one up. He played that hole to par, but finished with three successive birdies for a 67 and Westwood, able to match only one of them, was two down.

The front nine second time around saw a transformation, though. Westwood won the second and fifth to level - he nearly had a hole in one there - and pitched to six feet on the seventh to go ahead for the first time.

But back came Els. He sank a 35-foot putt two holes later and eagled the 12th from 14 feet to nose in front for the fifth time in the match.

He could not hold on to it, however, and instead Montgomerie and Westwood did battle for the £250,000 first prize. The loser's compensation was £120,000.

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