Els crowns a superb year

ERNIE ELS survived a sudden attack of the jitters to win his fourth Cisco World Match Play title at Wentworth.

In his first appearance since the birth of his son Ben two weeks ago - and three days on from his own 33rd birthday - the Open champion made it a time of triple celebration by beating Sergio Garcia 2&1 in the 36-hole final. On Wednesday Els had said: ''I couldn't ask for a better year - win a major and a little boy comes along.'' Having sent Colin Montgomerie to his heaviest-ever defeat - 6&5 - in the quarter-finals and then seeing off Vijay Singh, Els appeared to be cruising at five up after 12 and three up with six to play.

But with the winning line in sight he visited two bunkers and the crowd on the 31st and double-bogeyed it, then badly pulled a four-foot putt to bogey the next.