Els leaves it late to claim Grand Slam win
He might have got in through the back door, but Ernie Els scored his third win of the season yesterday at the Grand Slam of Golf, the 41-year-old South African seeing off David Toms by a stroke at Port Royal, Bermuda.
Despite some underwhelming green play early on, as Els' putting ability briefly deserted him, the Big Easy put together a late run of three birdies on the bounce between the 14th and 16th. That was enough to see Els finish the final round two-under-par 69 on Wednesday - a score that saw him finish the two-round tournament five-under in total.
Toms couldn't match that, coming home at level par to finish four-under in total - but that was still enough to see him finish some way clear of likelier contenders Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer.
This end of season shindig aims to gather the year's major winners for a final hurrah, but Els was a late replacement for Phil Mickelson, the current Masters champion deciding against appearing at this showpiece event.
Toms, too, only found himself playing at all thanks to an ankle injury that prevented Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen from attending. But while both alternatives were tussling for the trophy, the current major winners who did turn up hardly brought their A-game.
Both Germany's Kaymer and Northern Ireland's McDowell finished three-over for the tournament, Kaymer coming home on level par for the second round while McDowell was two-over, after a double-bogey on the 7th hit his chances of a final round charge.
If Toms couldn't quite make the most of his young rivals' couple of off-days though, Els eventually managed to. “I was struggling on the greens a bit yesterday [Tuesday]," he admitted. "I was struggling on the greens again today until let's say the last five, six holes when I found something in my putting stroke."
"My speed came back and I made some really big putts. Those are the putts that I was missing for almost a day and a half, then they started dropping, and that was the difference."
The South African will next play at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
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