Golf: World Golf Championship: Els Holds Nerve to Win

Ernie Els emerged from a slough of despond yesterday when he won the American Express World Golf Championship at Mount Juliet here and moved to No2 in the world rankings, pushing Tiger Woods down to third place.

"It seems I've been chasing Tiger for the last four or five years," said a smiling Els, "but now I've got to chase Vijay. But I'm feeling much better and have a different attitude now, and it's game on."

Els, who confessed to being depressed at missing out by one shot at three of the major championships this year, said after his win: "This is a new start for me and my life and my career. It helps me to forget all those near misses."

The South African beat off a challenge from another golfer who with this result has also resurrected a career. Earlier this year Thomas Bjorn walked out of the European Open at The K Club saying that he had reached such a low that he felt it was better not just for him but for those around him if he ceased playing. "I'm fighting mental demons," he said.

Now, it seems, he has conquered them. It was always asking a lot of him to recover a two-shot deficit after three rounds but in pouring rain and a bitter wind he produced a four-under-par 68, one better than Els but not quite enough.

Els won $1.2m (£667,000) for his 18-under-par 270, beating Bjorn by one, David Howell by five and Sergio Garcia and Darren Clarke by six. Els said: "It was a really tough day out there. I tried to outplay Thomas but I couldn't. He just didn't want to go away."

The pair, remarkably given the conditions, had only two bogeys between them and the last of those, by Els on the 18th, came when he had two putts for the title. Bjorn bogeyed the 14th, only his second bogey in the last 36 holes. His recovery, it would seem, is complete.

Els, already at the top of the European Order of Merit, not only moves further ahead, he surpasses the record amount of money won - €3,125,147 (£1.74m) by Lee Westwood in 2000 -with €3,368,121. As he is also playing in next week's Dunhill links event and the HSBC World Match Play he can improve on that.

This was filthy weather. The rain did not so much trickle down the neck as gush and, if the promised gales had arrived, it is quite possible that one of the options catered for in the tournament regulations - a Tuesday finish - would have had to be exercised.

Mind you, it is quite possible that, if it had come to that, only Els and Bjorn would have been left to fight out the finish, with everyone else having made an excuse and fled the scene.

The overall scoring showed the degree of misery involved in being on the course at all. Although the Australian Mark Hensby, an early starter, got round in an amazing 65, the sub-70 scores that had been recorded all week, vanished. Good players, like Michael Campbell and Jonathan Kaye, took 80, Charles Howell III 78, Robert Allenby and Fred Couples 77, scores that speak for themselves.

Woods had a final round of 70, for a 10-under-par 278, to tie for sixth. But far from being satisfied with a top-10 placing when not properly fit, his back problem having only eased rather than disappeared, he should be worried that even when just trying to bunt the ball down the fairway, his accuracy stats have not improved.

Through the week he hit only 30 of 56 fairways, a percentage that resembles his season-long average of 57.6% and he saved himself time and again on the greens. Yesterday he needed only 25 putts, single putting nine greens and needing none at all at the short sixth. He had only 110 for the week, a total which, when combined with accurate play through the green, usually wins any tournament.

The statistical evidence, then, seems to agree with the anecdotal conclusion that there is a technical weakness in his swing, certainly as compared with 2000, and he does himself no favours by constantly claiming he is "just a touch away" from his best game.

All week long the players have been paying tribute to Aidan O'Hara, the head greenkeeper, who succeeded in preparing greens that not only putted superbly but also resisted spikemarks. Yesterday he and his staff passed another huge test by keeping the course playable during the monsoon, helped by the fact that in recent years they have spread five-inches of sand all over it.

This tournament is the one that sets an example to the other so-called world golf championships by actually playing its events around the world and not just in the United States. It comes to London and the lovely new course at The Grove, near Watford, in 2006.

By that time the prize money will have risen to $8m, up by $1m from this year, and the event will feature around 70 of the best players in the world.