Confident Els plans to savor CA Championship victory

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Ernie Els ended a two-year victory drought by winning the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

DORAL, Fla. -- The three-year plan is history.

The desire still burns bright, though, and on this sun-blessed Sunday in south Florida, a wiser, but still willful Ernie Els won the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

With the four-stroke victory over Charl Schwartzel in this star-studded event, the affable South African re-established himself among the top 10 players in the world. But overtaking the world No. 1 who was absent this week certainly wasn't among his talking points on Sunday evening.

CA Championship Wrap-up
Leaderboard: Final
Results, money
The Live Report
Round 4 notebook
Els: Shot of the Day
Round 4 highlights

"I said a bit too much the last time I won," Els said with a wry grin. "I was a bit too cocky. I just want to enjoy this one. This took so much work. A lot of people have said that the older you get, the tougher it becomes to win, and that's very true. I'm 40 years old, and it feels like in my 20s I had so many chances and I didn't quite take them.

"Now that you're older, you don't get as many chances. ... So this is nice. I'll have a bit more confidence now, I'm sure. But I just want to keep working hard. ...

"Just to be back kind of in that group of players who are really performing well: I feel honored to be back in there."

Els was fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking when he revealed his three-year plan to supplant Tiger Woods on his website after winning the 2007 South African Open. He's only won twice since, though -- once on the European Tour later that year and two years ago last week at The Honda Classic.

"I don't think the motivation was lacking," Els said. "I just think that I went about it the wrong way. I was almost chasing my own tail a little bit. I was not looking after the smaller things -- meaning that just my normal mechanics in the game, the basics; I wasn't looking after that.

"I was looking at the whole big picture on Thursday morning, oh, I'm going to win the golf tournament. And it takes four days of good play. It takes strategy. It takes mental strength. It takes patience.

"And I kind of let that all out of the window and I was just going for the big prize. I was just not quite managing myself correctly. ... I think I learnt a little bit more about how to win, just doing it myself for once."

That's why it was so important for Els to trust what he had worked so hard on after that disappointing tie for 67th at The Honda Classic the previous Sunday. He repositioned his ball at address and worked on his posture, and he gained confidence with every sub-par round at TPC Blue Monster at Doral.

"There's no better day to really test yourself than today -- fourth round of the golf tournament, everything on the line," Els said. "...Nobody had to put any more pressure on myself, because I knew how big it was. But I didn't want to get ahead of myself, either. I really wanted to play every hole for what it was, every shot for what it gave me. And basically that's what I did when I won a lot of golf tournaments."

"There was just a calmness he'd been looking for," Els' wife Liezl agreed. "It was so nice to see that. ... He's had so many top-10s. Today he was in control of his own destiny."

Els pulled away from Schwartzel, the son of a friend who grew up idolizing the Big Easy in their native South Africa, on the back nine. The up-and-comer who got up-close-and-personal with his mentor in the final group later said Els' bogey-free round of 66 Sunday was nothing short of "flawless."

Els had hosted the 25-year-old at his home in Jupiter, Fla., last week and will do it again for the next seven days before both play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

"If I'd beaten him, I probably would've had to buy a tent, but now I think I'll be allowed in the house," Schwartzel said with a grin. "He was definitely staying in the garden," Els joked.

Before the two journey to Bay Hill, though, Els will head back to the range and try to perfect the shots he needs to earn the third leg of the career Grand Slam at the Masters. He won't get "carried away" like he did two years ago and expect it to come easy.

"This time I just want to take this in," Els said. "... But next week I'm going to work hard again. I've got to really get these things that I'm working on, get it really even drilled out a bit more and really be comfortable with it and get my ball flight perfect for Augusta."

First, though, Els gets to have a little fun.

Monday is the second annual Els for Autism Pro-Am at PGA National where he will be joined by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Steve Stricker, Robert Allenby, Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Rory Sabbatini. They're raising money for the Els Center of Excellence, a self-sustaining academic village that combines education, medical treatment and promotes research for autistic children like his son, Ben.

"We are kind of missing the cocktail party right now," Els said, smiling, as he did the obligatory interviews Sunday evening.

He'll have quite the story to tell on Monday, though.