Els now eyeing Singh's number one slot

It was Padraig Harrington who arrived last week talking about trying to kill two birds with one stone – win a world title and win in Ireland.

But in the end it was Ernie Els who left Mount Juliet last night with a pair of immediate career goals achieved.

Els was the one to capture his maiden World Golf Championships crown, beating Denmark’s back-to-form Thomas Bjorn by a stroke in the £3.8m (€5.5m) American Express championship.

And the other thing accomplished was to overtake Tiger Woods on the world rankings.

Only trouble is, Woods was not the number one any longer. Vijay Singh got him first last month and the Fijian is the man Els has to start targeting to get to where he really wants to be.

While Woods heads home – and possibly then to Barbados for a rumoured wedding this weekend to Swede Elin Nordegren – Els moves on to Scotland and a reunion with his father Neels, whom he will again be partnering in the dunhill links championship at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.

Also there, hopefully, will be Singh, who pulled out of the last event in Co Kilkenny after his home in Florida was damaged by Hurricane Jeanne.

The two will also be opponents in next week’s HSBC world match play championship at Wentworth.

“If Vijay keeps playing like he has been (five wins in his last six starts) he’s obviously going to be very tough to beat, but I don’t think there’s going to be the gap that Tiger opened up, so I don’t think it’s going to be as tough,” said Els.

Just to be winning again came as a relief to the 34-year-old. His last success was the Memorial tournament in Ohio in May and until yesterday all that he was really being remembered for this season was a succession of near-misses in the majors.

He was second in the Masters, missed out on joining a play-off at the US PGA by bogeying the last and at the US Open, two off the lead with a round to play and in the final group, crashed to an 80 on those horror greens at Shinnecock Hills.

“I think there was more pressure on me than anybody in the field,” he commented last night. “I had to win it or lose it – everybody knows what I’ve been through and I think I showed that I didn’t want to lose.”

Bjorn, without a single top-10 finish since February and “fighting demons” when he walked off the course on his last trip to Ireland in July, pulled back to only one behind four times in the final round.

But Els refused to buckle and held on to collect his biggest-ever cheque of nearly £250,000 (€263,000).

Woods, who overcame excruciating back pain earlier in the week to finish ninth, is now without a stroke play title to his name for the first time since he won his fifth professional event in 1996.

He is also world number three for the first time since early in 1999. But if he does have a wedding to prepare for then he has the perfect opportunity to switch off from his season of disappointments.

Just three weeks ago he was answering questions about a rumoured split from his fiancee. How quickly and dramatically things change – and he will be hoping the same is true of his golf career.