Easy does it

Ernie Els’s emotional victory in the CA Championship at Doral’s Blue Monster course in Miami has rocketed him to the top of the US PGA Tour’s money list.

After an all-too-long period in the doldrums Els’s win in an event which, as one of the World Golf Championship tournaments, is ranked just below the Majors in importance has engineered an amazing transformation in the statistics by which golfers are measured.

Not only has he gone to the top of the money list, a position he has not occupied for some time, with earnings of $1 951 106 (Camilio Villegas is second on $1 861 500) after 11 tournaments of the 2010 schedule but he has also displaced Colin Montgomerie on top of the career money list on the European Tour – thanks to the fact that Majors and WGC events are eligible.

The European Tour’s career earnings list shows Els at the top with the staggering amount of €24 473 052.

However far more satisfying to Els as he heads into the pre-Masters swing is his elevation on the World Golf Rankings – jumping from No 20 to No 8.

He is the fifth player, along with runaway leader Tiger Woods, Darren Clarke, Geoff Ogilvy and Phil Mickelson, to win multiple WGC events.

Significantly he has improved from tied 50th to 29th in the putts per round category while his scoring average of 69.02 is second to Villegas (68.02).

Doral also represented a breakthrough for Charl Schwartzel whose disappointment at losing a thrilling duel to his hero would have been tempered somewhat by the prize of $850 000 for second place and the fact that he will now be able to take up PGA Tour membership.

Schwartzel has climbed to a career-high world ranking of 27th in a year that his seen South Africans plunder the spoils on the American tour.

Els tops the list but Tim Clark (17th, $803 426), Retief Goosen (19th, $787 833) and Rory Sabbatini (21st, $724 094) have also done outstandingly.