Els holds nerve after final round collapse

ERNIE ELS admitted to not being quite sure how he managed to pull his third consecutive Heineken Classic victory out of the bag yesterday after an astonishing slump at Royal Melbourne.

But on an incredible final day it very nearly did as Els lost his eight stroke lead in just nine dramatic holes before recovering to edge out Adam Scott by one shot in a dogfight down the home straight.

In the end, Els finished a record-breaking week on 20-under-par to retain his title, but had to wait until Scott’s final putt of the day to be certain of a wire-to-wire victory.