'Big Easy' makes hard work of victory

Ernie Els, the South African known as Big Easy, won the 131st Open golf tournament in Muirfield last night ­ but easy, it wasn't.

It was the most fraught climax to the game's oldest tournament since Jean Van de Velde took off his shoes and waded to defeat at Carnoustie three years ago.

Van de Velde's compatriot Thomas Levet, the 33-year-son of a Paris doctor, was the latest French victim of Open drama. But he was gracious in the defeat which came in the first hole of sudden death after the Australians Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington had been eliminated in the four-hole play-off. Els, 32, was lifted up by Levet after he made the winning 5ft putt. He said: "I don't know how I made that putt. I was shaking from all the tension."