Els to meet Bjorn in final

Defending champion Ernie Els defeated Vijay Singh 5 and 4 Saturday, giving him a chance to win a record-tying fifth World Match Play title.

Only Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player have won it five times.

In the other semifinal on the West Course at Wentworty, Thomas Bjorn defeated Ben Curtis 2-up. It will be Bjorn's first appearance in the final on Sunday, worth 1 million pounds ($1.67 million) to the winner.

It was slight revenge for Bjorn. Three months ago he lost the British Open by one stroke to Curtis after leading by two strokes with three holes to play.

It was a doubly good day for Els.

He won the European money title with two events still to play when Darren Clarke -- 570,000 pounds ($950,000) behind -- pulled out of the last two events. Clarke needed to win both to have any chance of overtaking the South African.

On the course, Els was four holes down after 15, but the Southern African called the ``Big Easy'' pulled off a record-breaking comeback by winning the next eight holes.

He had five birdies in the stretch and the Fijian had three bogeys.

The previous record for most consecutive holes in the 36-holes-daily event was seven by Tony Lema in 1965.

``I found something with my golf swing on the 18th this morning,'' Els said. ``I went with that, and my putter got hot. The last three holes (three straight birdies) this morning changed the whole outcome.''

``I don't know what Vijay had for lunch, but he didn't hit the ball the same at the start of the second 18.''

Leading by four holes after No. 5 -- the 23rd -- Els went up by five when Singh bogeyed No. 7.

Singh won the next with a birdie and, on No. 10, he seemed to have taken the hole, knocking in a bunker shot from the edge of the green for a birdie. But Els responded, holing a 30-footer to halve the hole.

Singh cut the lead to three with a birdie on 11. Then came what Els called the ``turning point.''

Singh hit a 6-iron to 4 feet on No. 12 to set up an eagle putt. Els whipped out an 8-iron and also put his 4 feet away. They both made the putts.

``I really needed to counter his shot and I did that,'' Els said.

Els went four ahead with another 30-foot birdie on 13, and closed out Singh when the Fijian bogeyed 14.

Bjorn never trailed, going four holes up after Curtis gave away No. 15 with a double-bogey 6. But the American won two of the next three holes with birdies to leave Bjorn leading by two after 18.

The match went back and forth on the front nine of the second 18 with Bjorn alternating between leads of one and two holes. Curtis cut the lead to one hole on No. 9 -- the 27th -- with a par and then squared the match on No. 10 as Bjorn bogeyed again.

Bjorn regained the lead immediately with a 21-footer for birdie on No. 11. On 13 he pushed his lead to two again with a 15-foot birdie.

Curtis cut the lead to one on the 16th with a birdie as Bjorn conceded after hitting a shot out-of-bounds. Going into the final hole 1-up, Bjorn closed the American out on 18.

Curtis conceded the hole when he was off the green in three and Bjorn was on the green in two and a cinch to get down in two.

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