South African Open: World number four Retief Goosen put his South African Open victory down to his scrambling play on and around the greens.

Goosen saw off his South African compatriot Ernie Els by one stroke in a thrilling climax yesterday, sealing victory on the 18th hole with a birdie after his rival's eagle putt lipped out.

"I got off to a bad start on the first when I hit my second over the green and took a bogey five. Ernie then birdied quite a few holes on the front nine, but I struggled all day. While Ernie was always putting for birdies, I was scrambling," Goosen said after claiming his second South African Open title.

"I wasn't striking the ball as well as I can, but I was able to keep it together around and on the greens," he said.

"I got up and down when I needed to and that was the secret to my win."

Els seemed poised to force a play-off when a brilliant second shot into the last green stopped just five feet from the flag and Goosen overhit his approach, which ran through the green.

"I hit a good drive on 18, but it was on a downslope and it was not a great lie," Goosen said.

"I pushed a six-iron a bit and then I chose to putt and it came up perfectly and I was able to sink the birdie from four feet.

"But Ernie's eagle putt was tough. The green was very dry and very quick, and it was straight downwind so he couldn't be aggressive."

It looked all over for Els after the 17th hole when Goosen chipped in from behind the green for an astonishing birdie.

"On 17 we both hit the wrong clubs, eight-irons instead of nine-irons," Goosen said.

"I didn't have much of a shot and it was a bad lie in a hard pan. It was a question of landing the ball in the right spot and it was a bit of a shock when it went in. But then it was a great up-and-down by Ernie as well."

Els had earlier recovered from a double bogey on the par-four 12th with a run of three successive birdies and Goosen admitted he had been worried.

"It was touch-and-go," the twice US Open champion said.

"He hit it into the water on 12 and suddenly I was three ahead. But then I three-putted on 13 after a good drive and I think that gave Ernie a boost after he had hit a bad drive. He then went on to get three birdies in a row and we were all square."

Goosen will now take six weeks off before returning to action at the Dubai Desert Classic and he plans to work on improving his game.

"Since the end of last year I've not been playing as well as I did from 2002 and if you're not playing well then you can really hate it," he said.

"You need the right breaks and to miss in the right places.

"But I'm taking a six-week break now so, hopefully, I can figure a few things out."

Final round scores

(RSA unless stated, par 73):

282 - Retief Goosen 73 70 69 70 (€158,579).

283 - Ernie Els 76 70 69 68 (€ 115,057)

290 - Darren Fichardt 78 69 69 74, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 75 75 70 70.

292 - Keith Horne 73 72 72 75, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 70 75 72 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 74 74 72.

293 - Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 75 72 75.

294 - Tim Clark 68 78 72 76, Ross Fisher (Eng) 68 70 78 78.

295 - James Kingston 71 73 76 75.

296 - Charl Schwartzel 70 74 75 77, Trevor Immelman 77 74 73 72, Hendrik Buhrmann 80 73 69 74.

297 - Tjaart Van der Walt 76 71 75 75, Ian Hutchings 74 74 72 77, Bobby Lincoln 77 73 75 72.

298 - Andrew McLardy 72 78 74 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 73 75 72 78, Louis Oosthuizen 76 72 69 81, Michael Lamb (Zim) 79 72 73 74.

299 - Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 69 77 73 80, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 75 72 76 76, Miguel Carballo (Arg) 78 76 69 76.

300 - Ariel Canete (Arg) 79 75 71 75, Gary Clark (Eng) 77 76 72 75, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 76 72 76 76, Jean Hugo 73 74 75 78, Oliver Whiteley (Eng) 72 75 76 77, David Lynn (Eng) 72 74 77 77.

301 - Peter Karmis 76 75 77 73, David Dixon (Eng) 77 77 71 76, Justin Rose (Eng) 74 75 74 78, Desmond Terblanche 76 74 75 76, Mark Murless 75 75 74 77. 302 - Steve Van Vuuren 75 77 74 76, Phillip Archer (Eng) 74 73 80 75, Warren Abery 75 74 73 80, David Drysdale (Sco) 77 77 71 77, John Bele 72 73 83 74, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 75 75 73 79, Leonard Loxton 73 71 78 80, Jonathan Lomas (Eng) 76 73 76 77. 303 - Richard Sterne 75 73 78 77, Lee Slattery (Eng) 76 75 76 76, Ross Wellington 78 76 78 71. 304 - Michele Reale (Ita) 78 75 77 74, Omar Sandys 79 74 76 75, Scott Dunlap (USA) 74 77 72 81, Andrew Coltart (Sco) 75 76 78 75, Martin Maritz 78 76 73 77. 305 - Desvonde Botes 73 80 75 77, Alan Michell 75 75 79 76, Malcolm MacKenzie (Eng) 75 77 81 72, Dean Lambert 73 78 80 74, Michiel Bothma 82 71 77 75, Andrew Butterfield (Eng) 74 77 78 76. 306 - Kevin Stone 75 74 78 79, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 76 75 76 79, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 79 74 80 73, Patrick O'Brien 78 74 87 67, Dijon Tintinger 77 77 77 75, David Griffiths (Eng) 73 77 75 81, Francis Valera (Spa) 77 77 77 75. 307 - Titch Moore 74 76 79 78, Chris Davison 75 75 79 78. 308 - Brett Liddle 79 75 79 75, Doug McGuigan (Sco) 79 72 81 76, Anton Haig 72 79 79 78, Garry Houston (Wal) 82 72 76 78, Jaco Van Zyl 71 82 78 77. 309 - Trevor Fisher Jnr 77 75 82 75. 310 - Bradford Vaughan 77 76 78 79. 311 - Warrick Druian 72 78 80 81, James Kamte 77 75 80 79. 312 - A Roestoff 80 73 83 76. 313 - F Aguilar (Chi) 77 77 81 78, S Norris 75 79 84 75, S Jeppesen (Swe) 80 72 83 78.