Els defeats Frazar in playoff

World number three Ernie Els birdied the third playoff hole to defeat Harrison Frazar and successfully defend his Hawaiian Open title on Sunday.

Els shot a closing five-under-par 65 to finish 72 holes on 262, 18 under.

Frazar birdied the last two holes of regulation to card a 66 and keep pace with Els, who defeated Australian Aaron Baddeley in a playoff here last year.

Davis Love III (67) was third on 265, his second top-10 finish of the season, one stroke ahead of Frank Lickliter II (68). Jerry Kelly and Briny Baird tied for fifth place on 267, 13 under.

Els and Frazar both made pars on the first two playoff holes before the South African sank a 30-foot putt at the par-three 11th to win for the 13th time on the PGA Tour.

The world number three also became the third player to win this event in consecutive years, joining Hubert Green (1978-79) and Corey Pavin (1986-87).

Frazar, one stroke ahead overnight, bogeyed the sixth and seventh holes to relinquish the lead to Els, who birdied five out of seven from the eighth to build a two-stroke advantage.

Els three-putted the 15th before Frazar birdied from 21 feet at the 17th to join him on 17-under. They both then birdied the par-five 18th.

"I felt good going into today," Els told reporters. "I felt my swing was coming around.

"All week, I was quite patient. I wasn't like that last week (at the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua). I worked on that even before the week started.

"Coming into today, I knew I had to get off to a pretty solid start, just kind of play myself into the round. I actually had a number in my mind to try and shoot 64 because it was really calm again."

Els said his 30-footer to clinch victory reminded him of a similar scenario here l2 months ago.

"I couldn't help myself thinking about last year when I made it across the green to win the tournament," Els said.

"I just felt maybe I'm destined to make this putt.

"I'm pretty close to doing really good things. I just want to stay on course and just keep doing.

"I can get better. I mean, look at 15 today. You three-putt when you shouldn't three-putt. Then, you make it really hard on yourself.

"There's still things I can improve on, and I want to improve on, and those kind of things I can't do trying to win a major championship. So, I've got to keep grinding away."

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