St. Andrews, Sept 29: Ernie Els was inspired as he went in search of his seventh victory of the season. He birdied the difficult last two holes on the Old Course to close to within one shot of Westwood, who had to negotiate his final three holes in par to win the tournament.

Els plundered nine birdies on the way to a sparkling 64 but it was not quite enough for the big South African, though he did stay ahead of Clarke in the race to win Europe's order of merit. The burly Northern Irishman lacked inspiration in a final round of 70.
Britons David Howell and Brian Davis, who closed with an Old Course record 62, Australian Nick O'Hern, Swede Henrik Stenson and South African Richard Sterne were a further shot back in a tie for sixth.
Fiji's Vijay Singh, the world number three, shot 68 to complete a 13-under-par aggregate total of 275, four shots better than defending Dunhill Links champion Padraig Harrington.
Former European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance won the team pro-am competition with his 15-year-old son Daniel.


Leading final round scores at the Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday (Britain unless stated): 267 Lee Westwood 70 68 62 67 268 Ernie Els (South Africa) 72 65 67 64 270 Raphael Jacquelin (France) 69 68 64 69 271 Maarten Lafeber (Netherlands) 68 69 67 67, Darren Clarke 67 68 66 70 272 Nick O'Hern (Australia) 73 67 67 65, Brian Davis 74 70 66 62, David Howell 67 68 69 68, Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 71 66 67 68, Richard Sterne (South Africa) 71 67 65 69 273 Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 68 68 66 71 274 Peter Lawrie (Ireland) 67 68 71 68, Mark McNulty (Zimbabwe) 71 66 68 69, Phillip Price 68 71 66 69, Simon Yates 66 71 66 71 275 Charlie Wi (South Korea) 71 70 66 68, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 72 66 69 68, Ian Poulter 69 69 68 69 276 Stephen Scahill (New Zealand) 70 73 67 66, Mark James 70 71 67 68, Julien Clement (Switzerland) 72 68 70 66, Paul Lawrie 69 67 68 72, Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 71 68 65 72 277 John Bickerton 70 70 70 67, Trevor Immelman (South Africa) 71 71 68 67, Joakim Haeggman (Sweden) 69 73 69 66, David Park 70 70 66 71, Kennith Ferrie 71 72 68 66 278 Glen Day (U.S.) 69 73 67 69, Richard Green (Australia) 74 72 64 68, Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 68 70 70 70, Ian Woosnam 72 69 70 67, Jamie Donaldson 67 74 69 68, Nick Faldo 71 70 70 67


Bureau Report