Heineken Goes to Who Els?

Ernie Els brushed off a mid-round challenge from Greg Norman to complete a start-to-finish victory Sunday in the Heineken Classic at Melbourne, Australia.

In cool, blustery conditions, Els led from the first round to the last at the Royal Melbourne composite course to close with a three-under-par 69 for a 17-under 271.

That gave him a five-shot victory over David Howell, who shot a 68, Peter Fowler (67) and Peter O’Malley (70).

“This is a big win for me,” Els said. “I was very nervous--the greens here are fantastic, but they’re very quick. I knew I had a big lead, but it can go fast.”

Norman birdied five of six holes through No. 10 to pull within two shots of Els, but a run of pars and bogeys on Nos. 15 and 16 put him out of contention.

John Jacobs drove into a water hazard on the final hole but escaped with a one-stroke victory in the rain-shortened Senior PGA Tour’s Royal Caribbean Classic at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Jacobs salvaged a par and closed with a six-under for an 11-under 133. He won for the fourth time on the senior tour.

Sharing second place in the $1.45-million event were Isao Aoki (64), Bruce Fleisher (68) and Tom Watson (66). Aoki, runner-up last year, had the day’s best round.

The tournament, the first full-field event this year, was reduced to 36 holes after rain washed out Friday’s round.

Retief Goosen had seven birdies en route to a six-under 66 to win the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Sun City, South Africa, by three strokes over Scott Drummond.

Goosen, coming off a victory in the Johnnie Walker Challenge at Perth, Australia, used good iron play to break out of a third-round tie with Drummond. Goosen had one bogey Sunday, at No. 5, on the 7,042-yard Gary Player Country Club course.

Jaco van Zyl closed with a 69 to finish third at 273, and Tjaart van der Walt had a 67 to finish fourth at 274.