Ernie Els claimed his ninth European Tour victory in considerable style at Royal Melbourne when he cruised to a five stroke win in the Heineken Classic.
The 32 year old South African followed in the footsteps of his friend and fellow countryman Retief Goosen, who dominated last week’s Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, with an imperious display throughout the four days.
Having opened with a 64 to lead by two shots Els, whose last European Tour success was the Standard Life Loch Lomond in 2000, followed it with three successive 69s to stretch his advantage by a shot each day, his closing round giving him a 17 under par total of 271 and a five shot winning margin over Peter Fowler, David Howell and Peter O’Malley with defending champion Michael Campbell fifth on 277.
“I like the way you guys do it down here with good tournaments and good courses,” said Els in the aftermath of his victory. “It was great to win as it was a very good field on a very nice course, so I am really pleased as it sets up my year nicely.”
The win saw the South African pocket 221,385 euro (£135,932) and move to second on the Volvo Order of Merit behind Goosen. It also helped Els erase the memory of the 1999 Heineken Classic where he led by six shots in the early stages of the final round only to lose his way and eventually surrender the title to Jarrod Moseley.
This time the men who could have caught him were Howell and Australian legend Greg Norman, who both trimmed the South African’s lead to two strokes in the early stages of the final round. But birdies at the seventh and ninth and an eagle at the tenth, an exact replica of his third round, saw Els firmly close the door this time.
Howell had worked his way to 13 under par through 15 holes but a bogey on the 16th stalled the man from Swindon and his eventual 68 saw him share second with Australians Fowler (67) and O’Malley (70).
Fowler, the 1993 BMW International Open champion, birdied two of the last three holes and also holed out from the sand on the eighth to return to the limelight. “When I sunk that big, long birdie putt on the 16th, it sent a shiver down my spine,” he said. “I finally got it together, it’s been five years of long, hard work.”
O’Malley, last year’s Compass Group English Open champion, partnered Els and battled hard all day, three birdies on the back nine helping the man from New South Wales recover from a tough start. He climbed his way from ninth at one stage back up into a tie for second.
Norman’s electrifying front nine of 32 included five birdies, the highlight a long birdie putt from off the green on the par three eighth. But two bogeys in the last four holes took the wind out of his sails and the two time Open Champion had to settle for a 69 and a share of sixth with Nick Faldo and Stephen Leaney on 278.
Norman said: “I knew that if I picked up a birdie on the 12th and Ernie didn’t make one of the two par fives, then it would have been really close. I would have had a little more momentum go my way, but he went birdie-eagle and that’s where he spread himself out.”
Els continued the trend of big winning margins in the event, following Michael Campbell’s five shot win last year and the New Zealander's six shot success in 2000. He also admitted the feat of Goosen in winning last week’s Johnnie Walker Classic by eight shots had spurred him on.
“I guess you could say Retief’s success last week at the Johnnie Walker did inspire me, yeah,” he said. “I may well have inspired him over recent years so there is a little bit of that there I suppose.”
Campbell, who was looking to become only the fifth player in European Tour history to win an event three years in succession, kept alive his hopes with a third round 68 but needed to better that in the final round to have a chance, his 69 ending a brave defence in fifth place on 277.
