By Ed Osmond
LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 22 (Reuters) – British Open
champion Ernie Els described his crazy feelings after taking
advantage of a stunning late collapse by Australian Adam Scott
to win his fourth major title on Sunday.
Els birdied the last hole to finish on seven under par and
as the South African munched a sandwich on the practice green
expecting a playoff at best, Scott suffered his fourth
successive bogey on the 18th to hand the Claret Jug to the
42-year-old.
“It is amazing,” Els told reporters. “I’m still numb. It
still hasn’t sunk in. It will probably take quite a few days
because I haven’t been in this position for 10 years so it’s
just crazy, crazy, crazy getting here.”
Els, who will climb from 40th to 15th in the world rankings,
was referring to his last Open victory in 2002 at Muirfield when
he beat Australians Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington and
Frenchman Thomas Levet in a four-hole playoff.
“I remember I was very relieved at Muirfield because I
almost did what Scottie did,” he said. “I was lucky enough to
make birdie on 17 and make par on 18 to get in the playoff. I
had the lead most of the time also there.”
Els, the second 42-year-old to win the Open following Darren
Clarke’s victory at Sandwich 12 months ago, said he felt
confident going into the final round despite trailing leader
Scott by six shots.
“I felt good after yesterday,” he said. “I didn’t play
myself out of it. But it’s hard to explain. For some reason I
felt something good was going to come out of this.”
Els won the 1994 and 1997 U.S. Opens early in his career and
topped the world rankings three times in 1997 and 1998 for a
total of nine weeks.
Continued…
