Dyson maintained his consistent start to the season by finishing joint seventh in the Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirate club in Dubai.

He recovered from a disappointing one over par 73 third round score to shoot a 70 in the final round to finish on 282 alongside Mathias Gronberg (Sweden), Bradley Dredge, Darren Clarke and Andrew Oldcorn.

They were ten shots adrift of the winner, South African star Ernie Els, who shot to the top of the Order of Merit with his second title in the space of seven days.

The victory was Els' third in a row in strokeplay tournaments in which he has collected 50 under par.

Updated: 11:54 Monday, March 11, 2002