Els closing in on order of merit title

THE battle for the European Tour order of merit title is put on ice this week as the three remaining contenders for the honours go their separate ways.

And it is now very much on the cards that South Africa’s Ernie Els will claim the title without playing in either of the three final counting tournaments, the Portugal Masters that ended on Sunday, the Majorca Open beginning on Thursday and next week’s season ending Volvo Masters.

Els finished his 2007 European campaign by winning the HSBC World Match Play Championship after which he led the money list by 217,295 points from holder Pádraig Harrington and by another 31,407 from England’s Justin Rose in third place.