GULLANE, Scotland -- Ernie Els could see the Claret Jug, and, for once, Tiger Woods' hands were not already wrapped around a major championship trophy.

But Els found Sunday that the only thing heavier than that jug is the burden of trying to win it.

[AP photo]
South Africa's Ernie Els kisses the trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship Sunday at Muirfield golf course in Scotland.

Desperately trying to capture major championships in an era when Woods is hoarding them, Els was presented a clear path, then nearly stumbled into major infamy before prevailing in an aggregate playoff at the 131st Open Championship.

Els made four pars in the first-ever four-man playoff to decide a major championship, then outlasted France's Thomas Levet in sudden death with an excellent bunker shot to win his first Open Championship and third major title.

For the Big Easy, it was anything but.

"I had a dream of winning this jug for a long time," said Els, 32, who won the 1994 and '97 U.S. Opens. "I guess I've got a little bit of fight in me when it counts. But it would have been a very hard loss if I didn't win this jug."

Els, who played superbly Saturday in horrendous conditions that knocked Woods out of the tournament, held a three-shot lead with six holes to play. But a bogey at the 14th hole, coupled with moves made by Levet, Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby, reduced his lead to one.

Then he inexplicably aimed for the pin at the par-3 16th, pulled his 7-iron shot to the left of the green, hit two poor chips and made a double-bogey 5, the only one of the day at that hole.

Now he trailed by a shot.

"A lot of things went through my mind," Els said. "I was like, 'Is this a way to lose another major? Is this the way you want to be remembered, by screwing up in an Open Championship?' A lot of things went through my mind. That wasn't one of my finer moments. Somehow, I pulled myself together."

The third-ranked player in the world with more than 40 victories around the globe nearly let some supposedly inferior competition steal the championship.

Levet, the 134th-ranked player in the world from France, has all of two career victories on the PGA European Tour. Appleby, ranked 63rd, has three PGA Tour wins. Elkington, the 1995 PGA Championship winner who has 10 PGA Tour titles, has battled injuries and illness in recent years. Of all things, he is allergic to grass.

Els seemed allergic to winning.

"He wants this more than anything," said fellow South African Nick Price as Els tried to hold on coming down the stretch. "He wants to get his hands on that Claret Jug more than anybody. He's played well this year. That fiasco at Augusta (where Els finished fifth to Woods) hurt him a bit, and I think he's just coming back from that. He's determined. People think to look at him he doesn't try too hard. But believe me, he does."

Els fought back into a tie with a two-putt birdie at 17 and hoped to birdie the last hole to win in regulation. But his par meant a finish of 278, 6 under par, and the four-man aggregate playoff.

"I was really down in the dumps," Els said. "I did not have a good feeling."

For once, all those Scottish faces in the gallery were not red from the wind, but the sun. The miserable, gloomy weather of Saturday was replaced by a rare pleasant, warm afternoon, leading to a Sunday shootout, with 36 scores in the 60s. Els shot 70, unable to win outright.

Appleby was the first player to get to 278, 6 under par. He birdied three of the last four holes for a final-nine 30, including a 20-footer at the 18th. He shot 65. Levet followed with 66. And then came Elkington, who hit every green in regulation and made five birdies. But he'll rue the 4-footer he missed at the 18th that, as it turned out, would have won the tournament.

"I played it straight and it just went left," said Elkington, who didn't make the tournament field until Monday at 36-hole qualifying. "If that putt had gone in, I would have had that jug."

Padraig Harrington (67), Shigeki Maruyama (68) and Gary Evans (65), whose lost ball at the 71st hole ultimately cost him a shot at the title, all had their moments on top, but settled for a tie for fifth, one shot out of the playoff.

That left only Els, who walked off the 72nd green in a daze. The British Open went to an aggregate playoff in the late 1980s, but for the first time, more than three players were taking part. They were sent off in twosomes to play the first, 16th, 17th and 18th holes.

Elkington got into trouble when he bogeyed the first, and after a birdie at the 17th, he dropped out by bogeying the 18th. That was the same fate suffered by Appleby.

Levet took the lead when he made a birdie putt at the 16th, but doing his best imitation of countryman Jean Van de Velde -- who lost the 1999 British Open in a playoff -- he hit a driver off the tee at the 449-yard par-4 18th that led to a bogey. Els parred, and the two went to sudden-death, again playing the 18th.

This time, Levet, using his driver again, hit a poor tee shot into a fairway bunker. But with the advantage from the middle of the fairway, Els pulled his approach into a greenside bunker. With an awkward stance, Els feathered a perfect bunker shot to 5 feet. Levet kept things interesting by holing an 8-footer for bogey before Els rolled in his 5-footer for the victory.

"I lost to a great player," Levet said. "He's a big man, very talented. That bunker shot at the end could have gone anywhere. It was a piece of nerves."

Executed by a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Victory didn't seem as sweet as a loss would have been depressing. When Els won his second U.S. Open in 1997, he was proclaimed one of the next great champions. Woods captured seven majors before Els could get another.

But he'll take it.

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