Earner Els set to overtake Monty in Euro money table

ERNIE ELS cannot catch Vijay Singh at the top of the world rankings in Scotland this week - but he can overtake Colin Montgomerie and become the biggest money-earner in European Tour history.

Winning the American Express World Golf Championship title at Mount Juliet on Sunday took the South African to career earnings of €21.27 million in 14 seasons of playing in Europe.

Seven-time Order of Merit winner Montgomerie had a four-year start but his €21.41m total winnings mean he is under attack at the Dunhill Links championship starting tomorrow.

With a purse of €5.2m up for grabs a top-eight finish might do for Els if Montgomerie misses a third successive halfway cut on the circuit.

The pair are way ahead in the career money table. Darren Clarke is next with €15m, followed by Retief Goosen (€14m), Bernhard Langer (€13.88m), Padraig Harrington (€12.87m) and Lee Westwood (€11.86m). Singh, Nick Faldo, Jose Maria Olazabal, Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez are next.

Els broke Westwood’s record for one season on the Order of Merit when he took his total to €3.18m at the weekend - but there is a chance to add a lot more yet.

The Dunhill first prize at St Andrews on Sunday is nearly €870,000 and next week’s HSBC world match play championship at Wentworth, where he is the defending champion and going for a record- breaking sixth victory, carries golf’s biggest winner’s cheque of €1.45m, although for money list purposes that is being scaled down.

Winning both could take Els to the world number one spot but only if Singh, who missed last week after his Florida home was damaged by Hurricane Jeanne, has a rough time on the course as well.

With five wins in his last six starts and a new record US Tour total of nearly $9.5m (€7.7m), that seems highly unlikely.

Ten of Europe’s triumphant Ryder Cup team play this week, plus other major winners in Goosen, Rich Beem, Fred Couples, Ben Curtis, Steve Elkington, Paul Lawrie, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ian Woosnam.

Westwood is the defending champion, having beaten Els by a shot last year after an albatross in his third round at Kingsbarns.

Action takes place over three courses - St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie - and the celebrities playing in the pro-am include actors Samuel L Jackson, Michael Douglas and Hugh Grant, Matthew Pinsent, Steve Redgrave, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussein, Michael Vaughan, Bobby Charlton, Johan Cruyff, Kenny Dalglish, supermodel Jodie Kidd and former American vice-president Dan Quayle.