Els: Meltdown

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Ernie Els is hoping to make last week's final hole meltdown a distant memory when he defends his South African Open title starting on Thursday.

The 38-year-old tossed away a two-shot lead at the Alfred Dunhill Championship - an eight on the 18th gifting the title to John Bickerton.

Els is bound to bear the emotional scars from that loss but is determined to defend his title with honour at Pearl Valley.

"Obviously, you know what happened last week, I mean it's still difficult to kind of comprehend," said Els.

"I'm glad to be here and obviously it's difficult a little bit for myself personally after my mess-up last week to be fully focused at the moment.

"But I'm sure I'll be ready by tomorrow hopefully. This is a new week, it's the South African Open. I'm the defending champion here, so I'd love to do well."

Els faces tough competition headed by compatriots Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Tim Clark, who have all been successful in the past.

Veteran Greg Norman is a surprise entry, and he is looking forward to competing again.

"It's great to be back. It's been quite a hectic summer from a business perspective, so I didn't really play much golf in the United States or on a global basis. I only started practising about for weeks ago," he said.

"I don't feel like I've got enough competitive rounds under my belt. My expectations are to do well. I've had a couple of rounds under my belt, so we'll see how it pans out."

Bickerton bids for back-to-back wins and is joined by fellow Brits Darren Clarke and Ross Fisher.