Golf: Els hoping for Major boost from Miami

THE last time Ernie Els won at Doral in Miami he went on to win The Open four months later.

That was eight years ago. This time he hopes his wait for another major title is just three weeks away.

Els captured the WGC-CA Championship by four strokes from fellow South African Charl Schwartzel last night and since the best of the rest – Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer and Matt Kuchar – were seven back, it was a victory that will have the 40-year-old's Masters odds tumbling down.

Els had not won a Tour event for two years, but his 63rd professional title takes him back into the world's top ten, a place where he has spent more weeks (759) than any other player since the rankings started in 1986.

"I've had a tough run and I really wanted to play well," he said after a bogey-free 66 for 18 under par.

"I just wanted to prove it myself for once. I had to really trust the changes I've just made. The wind was blowing and you had to hit solid shots. Charl came at me all day and I have to take a lot of positives out of this."

It was his second victory in the event. Under former sponsor American Express, he lifted the title at Mount Juliet in Ireland in 2004.

It also makes Els the leading career money-winner on the European Tour again, taking him ahead of Colin Montgomerie with more than 21million.

Harrington fell out of the reckoning with a hat-trick of bogeys from the 13th and after his level par 72 on a day of low scoring stated: "I obviously struggled a bit all day. Those three holes were pretty simple up and downs and I didn't make them. I was hanging on a knife-edge all day, but I learnt a few things – as you always do in these situations.

"My bunker play was just not with it and my pitching could have been a bit better. You don't really see it until you are under pressure.

"I'm happy – I need to be competing and testing myself."

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell matched Els' 66 to climb from 16th to joint sixth with England's Paul Casey, Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, American Bill Haas and little-known Australian Alistair Presnell.

Casey has now finished second, fourth and sixth in his last three starts in America, but is really keen to start winning again after hearing that television commentator Johnny Miller had called him "the bigger under-achiever" in golf.

Ian Poulter, who beat Casey in the final of the World Match Play last month, gave his confidence another shot in the arm with a closing 64, the joint best round of the tournament to finish 37th.