Els ends drought at Doral

Els: 17th PGA Tour title

Final leaderboard
US unless stated
-18 E Els (SA)
-14 C Schwartzel (SA)
-11 P Harrington (Ire)
-11 M Kaymer (Ger)
-11 M Kuchar

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Ernie Els ended a two-year wait for a tournament victory as he proved too much for his young compatriot Charl Schwartzel, with a final round 66 giving him a four-shot victory in the WGC-CA Championship at Doral.

Els and Schwartzel were sharing a house in Miami for the week and they also shared the tee-box as the final pairing locked together on 12-under at the start of the day.

To his credit, Schwartzel kept the pressure up for most of the round, but Els looked right back to his best when producing a sparkling bogey-free round of six-under-par to close the tournament on 18-under.

The 40-year-old ironed out the putting flaws that had littered his third round, and a 24-foot par putt on the 14th proved to be the telling blow in the all-South African dual for the title.

Three birdies in the first four holes for Els, compared with just one for Schwartzel, and a bogey on the fifth extended Els' advantage to three shots.

Birdies

Schwartzel was not done though and he birdied six, seven and eight to get right back into the contest, although Els also birdied the eighth to maintain a one-shot lead.

Schwartzel got back on terms yet again at the 10th, but went over the green into sand on the next and failed to get up and down.

The ding-dong battle continued at the long 12th, Schwartzel making an eight-footer to go joint top on 16-under, but Els then holed from closer to edge ahead once more.

Schwartzel had hopes of drawing level for the eighth time over the weekend when Els twice found rough on the 14th, but the former Open champion made a long par putt to stay in the outright lead.

That was a killer blow for Schwartzel, and he went on to bogey the 15th and 17th with the wind taken well and truly out of his sails, leaving Els with a comfortable four-shot margin of victory in his 17th PGA Tour title.

Back to form

"I'm 40 years old now, I've had a tough run, my hairs are standing up now though, it's just great," said Els after his win. "I really wanted to play well today.

"You saw me yesterday, I missed some short putts, but I felt like my game was in good shape and I just wanted to come out here and prove it to myself.

"Charl came at me all day, up until 17 he came at me all day. I had to really trust those changes I made last weekend, it was windy and you had to hit some solid shots. I've got to take a lot of positives from this heading into the Masters next month."

Padraig Harrington had to scrap hard to finish level par on the day and grab a share of third on 11-under alongside Germany's Martin Kaymer (69) and American Matt Kuchar (68).

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell fired a closing 66 to climb from 16th to joint sixth with England's Paul Casey, Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, American Bill Haas and little-known Australian Alistair Presnell.

Casey has now finished second, fourth and sixth in his last three starts in America, but needed to win to have a chance of moving to a career-best second in the world.

Earlier, Ian Poulter gave his confidence another shot in the arm with a brilliant closing 64, the joint best round of the tournament.