Talk about turning the South African golf table upside down, legendary Springbok Ernie Els with 4 doubles on his card today shot a very tired +7 79 293, on the heels of yesterday's 76 has finished 3rd last in the field T69, after winning this title 5 times, while journeyman grinder Hennie Otto (72) buoyed by his Saturday 65, used all of his 3 shot lead to hold off Austria's Bernd Weisberger (68) to win his first national title by a shot at 35 years of age.
After bogeying 3 of 4 holes from 13-16 they were all square at -13, but Otto made a birdie 3 at 17, then parred 18 which was enough to edge Weisberger who was waiting in the clubhouse. The win gets Otto inside the top 60 and a place in the season ending Dubai Classic.
With one week to go before Dubai, at the UBS Hong Kong Open, the shuffle for tour cards continues.
For example England's Richard McEvoy who T3 after he scored 68 has earned his card for next season after he came into the week 121st on The Race to Dubai, and moved all the way to 107th.
Northern Ireland's Gareth Maybin, on the other hand, slipped from 118th to 120th after finishing well down the field. Steven O'Hara, who led at halfway and needed a top-three finish to save his card, fell away to 25th and fellow Scot Lloyd Saltman faces a return to The Qualifying School as well after a double bogey six on the last dropped him to ninth.
Former Ryder Cup star Phillip Price may well have done enough to avoid a trip to PGA Catalunya Resort in December, however. He holed an 80 foot birdie putt on the final green to finish in a tie for 35th, which moved him up one place to 116th.
Click here for final leaderboard http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011086/leaderboard/index.html
Remember Luke Donald leads the Race to Dubai after winning the PGA tour money order and he is not in the Hong Kong field nor is Martin Kaymer who is 2nd. However Rory McIlroy who is 3rd just over 1m euros behind him is part of a strong field that includes Justin Rose, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ross Fisher, Edoardo Molinari ,Peter Hanson and Alvaro Quiros Also heading to Hong Kong is Korea’s YE Yang, and defending champion Ian Poulter.
First prize is worth nearly 342,000 euros
Click here for Race to Dubai standings..http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/racetodubai/rankings/index.html
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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