Derksen's a shock winner

Virtually unknown Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen pulled off an amazing golfing upset today when he beat world number two Ernie Els to the Dubai Desert Classic today.

Derksen, a 29-year-old from Nijmegen, has never previously had a top 10 finish on the European tour.

He did not even figure on a world ranking list that features 3,082 players.

Els, chasing his fifth win in seven starts this year, led by two with seven to play, but as he double-bogeyed the 12th Derksen rolled in an eagle putt of over 60 feet at the long 13th.

Suddenly he led by two, but when the South African star birdied the 13th and chipped in at the short 15th to draw level it looked likely he would recover to win.

But Derksen had other ideas. He birdied the 547-yard last after a brilliant pitch over the water to five feet and was in tears as he walked off the green, even though he did not know whether he would win at that point.

Els had to birdie the 18th to tie and easily carried the water with his second. In the second and third rounds he had taken a bogey six, but this time a semi-duffed chip to 25 feet and two putts for a par five felt even worse.

Derksen, who last November finished 25th on his sixth trip to the tour qualifying school, has never finished higher than 142nd on the Order of Merit since first earning his card in 1997.

His closing 65 was the low round of the day and the round of his life. “It’s the biggest shock of my life – unbelievable,” he admitted himself.

The only other stroke play event Els has failed to win this year was the Singapore Masters. The player to beat him there – with a closing birdie to his birdie – was Chinaman Zhang Lian-wei.

Joint third were Ian Woosnam and the two players who had shared the overnight lead with Els, Scot Alastair Forsyth and England’s David Lynn.