Ernie Els narrowly misses out again

Ernie Els's showing in the 85th U.S. PGA Championship was much the same as his displays in this season's other three majors -- good, but not good enough.

The South African shot a closing one-over-par 71 to finish two-over for the championship and tied for fifth place with Jay Haas, six shots behind winner Shaun Micheel.

Els, the world number two, tied for sixth at the U.S. Masters, fifth at the U.S. Open and 18th in defence of his British Open title.

With a final-round scoring average of 70.75 in the four majors, Els could never make the moves necessary to overtake the leaders.

"I played a different game plan today," he told reporters. "I was really quite conservative off the tee and I took a lot of two-irons and I put it in play."

He had hoped to put pressure on a group of leaders who were relative novices.

Els, chasing his fourth major, hit only nine fairways in his final round and 12 greens in regulation but it was the 30 putts he took that put the nails in his coffin.

"I wasn't all that sharp with my fairway irons today and that cost me the golf tournament," Els said. "I didn't get the ball close enough on my second shots."

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