After making a sporting pledge to his kinsfolk last year, Ernie Els delivered on the double by guiding South Africa to victory in the £1 million Alfred Dunhill Cup here on the Old course yesterday. In partnership with Retief Goosen and David Frost, this team victory was added to a World Cup triumph with Wayne Westner last November. Strong winds brushed the links from the north-east and temperatures dropped by 20 degrees to below 50, as a brave Swedish side were beaten by 2-1 in the final. And the Swedes had already contributed a spectacular bonus to the occasion when, earlier in the day, Joakim Haeggman shot a stunning front nine of 27.
It happened in a marvellous, 2-1 semi-final win over the defending champions and number one seeds from the US. It also promised a repeat of their 1991 triumph here, when Per-Ulrik Johansson was in the Swedish side which beat South Africa in the decider.
That particular line-up may have included Frost, but they didn't have Els, who has become an irresistible golfing force in the new South Africa. Prior to last year's World Cup at Erinvale, he said: "The Boks won the Rugby World Cup and Bafana Bafana the African Nations Cup. Now it's our turn to produce."
With the bearing of a young district commissioner who could quell a colonial mutiny with a wave of his hand, Els always had the measure of Haeggman in the anchor position. And along with the other members of the side, he is now £100,000 richer, ample compensation for his World Matchplay defeat by Vijay Singh a week previously.
Meanwhile, in becoming only the seventh man in history - and the first on a course in these islands - to shoot 27 for nine holes in a professional tournament, Haeggman carded figures of 3-4-2-3-4-3-3-2-3 against the par of 4-4-4-4-5-4-4-3-4. In other words, birdie, par, eagle (a 133-yard wedge into the hole) and then six more birdies with putts ranging from four to 24 feet.
The 28-year-old was playing British Open champion Justin Leonard, whose stunned reaction was: "I was making sure I kept the scorecard real neat because I knew it was going on a wall somewhere. All I said to him was `good putt, good shot, nice drive, that's perfect, you still have the tee'."
Golf's most venerable and celebrated venue had never seen anything quite like it, although only a year ago in this event Leonard's team-mate, Mark O'Meara, had eight successive birdies from the second, to be out in 28.
"I knew what I was doing because they keep putting the numbers up in your face," said the Swede. "But I didn't know it was the world record."
The prospect of breaking 60, however, evaporated on the relatively innocent-looking, 316-yard 12th, where Tom Watson's hopes of a sixth British Open triumph were seriously damaged in 1984.
After starting for home with two pars, Haeggman's drive flew into a gorse bush and couldn't be found. He ran up a triple-bogey seven and came home in 41 for what was, in the circumstances, a disappointing 68.
But there was the considerable consolation of beating Leonard by four strokes, and with Per-Ulrik Johansson overcoming Brad Faxon 71-74, O'Meara's 68-69 win over Jesper Parnevik, three weeks after he beat him 5 and 4 in the Ryder Cup, was not enough to change the overall outcome again.
In the other semi-final, South Africa beat New Zealand by 2-1, the reverse of the score when they met at the same stage last year. Els lost to Frank Nobilo 70-66, but knew it did not matter. Goosen saw off Michael Long 67-72 and Frost came from one behind with six to play for a 7276 victory over Steve Alker, who, like Faxon, took seven on the long 14th.
The South Africans, beaten 2-1 by the Swedes six years ago, slowly edged towards their first title as the temperature dropped sharply and the wind picked up fiercely in the afternoon. Els's outward 33 put him three up against Haeggman, who managed one bogey and only one birdie on his return to the front nine. And after 12 holes, Goosen held the same lead over Parnevik.
Once the gaps became four - Goosen birdied the 14th, Haeggman bogeyed the 13th - Johansson's tighter game with Frost was becoming less likely to have any bearing on the match result. At the 14th, Haeggman made a 20-footer for birdie and Els, in the "Grave" pot bunker for two, took a bogey six.
Haeggman fell three behind again, however, by missing from six feet on the next. That effectively was that. Parnevik lost to Goosen 74-70 - Goosen won all his five games during the week - Johansson took care of Frost by 71-74 to finish unbeaten as well, and when Els had negotiated the dangerous Road Hole 17th in par, the remainder of his journey became a victory walk.
