Els coasts to ten shot victory

South African Ernie Els romped to a 10-stroke victory in the Johnnie Walker Classic today at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, and recorded the lowest winning four-round total on the European, Australasian and Asian PGA Tours.

The world number two completed a wire-to-wire victory in the tri-sanctioned
event by closing with a six-under-par 66 for his fourth victory of the year.
He finished with a four-round aggregate of 29-under-par 259.

Australians Stephen Leaney and Andre Stolz both carded 66s to tie for second
place.

Els started the day with a nine stroke lead and was never challenged en
route to victory in the UK£1 million event, which he also won in 1997 when
the tournament was first played in Australia.

"It's been an unbelievable week. We had a nice week's holiday last week and
that's definitely helped my play but I did not think I'd be shooting that
kind of score. I am really delighted with the way it has all worked out,"
said Els, who in the last six weeks has won the Mercedes Championship and
Sony Open in America, the Heineken Classic in Melbourne and finished second
in the Caltex Masters in Singapore.

"The golf course is playing a lot easier than last year but it is in
unbelievable shape. I just tried to keep my focus and not hit too many loose
shots. From four onwards today I did not hit a bad shot. It was an excellent
day, an excellent week," added Els, who won UK£166,660 after firing four
brilliant rounds of 64, 65, 64 and 66.

The 33-year-old reigning British Open winner dropped just one stroke today
and reeled off seven birdies, five of which were on the back nine.

Before Els' remarkable performance in Perth the lowest winning score on the
European Tour was registered by Canadian Jerry Anderson, who finished
27-under-par in the 1984 European Masters. On the Asian PGA Tour, Jeev
Milkha Singh from India held the record with his 26-under-par total in 1996
at the Philip Morris Asia Cup in Korea.

The Johnnie Walker Classic, which will be played in Thailand next year,
marked Els' 13th victory on the European Tour and his 43rd worldwide Tour
win. Yesterday he broke the 54-hole record on all three Tours after
finishing 23-under-par.

Leaney and Stolz claimed UK£86,855 for finishing second. Said Leaney: "If
somebody had said at the start of the week I would have shot 19 under par
and lost by ten I would have been pretty upset, but what can you do. I can't
play better than that."

Defending champion Retief Goosen from South Africa closed with a 68 to
finish in a tie for fourth place on 17-under-par along with England's Justin
Rose, Australian Robert Allenby, Jean-Francios Remesy from France, and New
Zealander David Smail.

"He (Ernie) played well, the course is obviously much easier than last year.
They have watered the greens so the course is not quite the same. Ernie's
playing well so we always knew he was the guy to beat. It was just a matter
of how many he was going to win by. He is playing really well now but there
is a long way to go still.

"I said at the start of the week that 20 under would win and unfortunately
we played in the morning so there was no wind so the scoring was going to be
even better. I did not play very well, very inconsistent. I never really go
a lot going," said Goosen, who won by eight shots last year.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page