Ernie Els gains fifth Match Play title

Thomas Bjorn provided the fireworks with a hole-in-one in the final of the World Match Play Championship but it was Ernie Els who produced all the figures that really mattered at Wentworth on Sunday.

His 4&3 victory over Bjorn left him as one of only three men - Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros are the others - to win the 39-year-old event five times and this success carried an added bonus of a European record cheque of one million pounds ($1.67 million).

His one-sided triumph also took his tally of 2003 tournament wins to seven, a personal record which has helped secure him his first European order of merit title.

He has now made over three million pounds ($5.02 million) in European events this year and is eighth on the U.S. money list too with $3.26 million.

Yet, the man only turned 34 years old on Friday.

Ballesteros, at Wentworth as a television pundit, said that Els should now fulfil his talent completely and overtake Tiger Woods as world number one.

"I certainly feel things can get better for me yet," the big South African told a news conference after his one-sided final win over Bjorn, his friend and near neighbour on the Wentworth estate.

"After I finished second to Tiger six times in 2000 I started with a bit of a problem about him in 2001 - I wouldn't say complex - and I had to find the cure. That was a case of getting mentally tougher and it's worked for me."

It certainly has. The world number two toasted his 13th title win since the beginning of last year with this success in a man-versus-man form of golf which is tailor-made for a player nicknamed the "Big Easy," such is his unflappable attitude to the game.

Bjorn definitely had no answer to it and admitted afterwards that he needed improvement in "every category" in his game to make the jump from world number 22 to the very elite which Els, Woods and a couple of others occupy.

The shot of the day, however, belonged to the Dane. Standing five down after some frankly uninspired play, Bjorn produced a perfectly struck four iron which arrowed straight for the 14th hole some 179 yards away and always looked destined to fall into the cup, to the delight of the gallery.

It was a brief respite. At the next, he badly miscued a five-iron approach through the green and Els had the opportunity to close out the match with a par which he duly did with a curling 20-foot putt.

That result had not seriously looked in doubt from the moment Els holed out from a similar distance at the third of their scheduled 36 holes to go one up with a birdie three.

He galloped to four-up after eight and although Bjorn briefly rallied, Els was still three ahead at the halfway, 18-hole mark.

An eagle three for Bjorn at the 12th hole of the afternoon round plus his ace which earned him a 37,000 pounds ($62,000) Toyota car to go with a 400,000 pounds runners-up cheque only delayed the inevitable.

There has been much media criticism of the event which failed to lure the big-name cast of golf's cream which the sponsors had hoped but the public, spurred possibly by flawless sunny weather almost throughout, seemed to take no notice.

The overall of attendance of 49,535 was the highest since 1998 when Tiger Woods played, and lost, the final to Mark O'Meara.

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