By Rob Hodgetts and Alistair Watkins BBC Sport at Wentworth

The last three holes before lunch changed the outcome of the match Ernie Els

Ernie Els will play good friend Thomas Bjorn for a �1m first prize in the final of the HSBC Match Play Championships.

The pair - who often go out for dinner with each other's families - live almost next door to each other on the exclusive estate on the fringes of Wentworth's West Course.

"It will be certainly be a strange one with two guys playing who know each other so well with so much at stake," said Denmark's Bjorn, who beat Open champion Ben Curtis to book his place in the final.

"I'll just concentrate on the game and try to play the best I can which I'll need to do to beat him."

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Defending champion Els set a new tournament record to line up the clash against Bjorn, beating Fiji's Vijay Singh 5&4 in their semi-final.

The South African trailed by four holes at one stage during the morning round but won a record eight straight holes either side of lunch to reach 4-up.

Els' charge finished at the 5th but he went five-up at the 7th before Singh clawed holes back at the 8th and 11th.

But the fifth seed could not maintain his fightback and lost the 13th to a birdie before Els won on the 14th.

Els attributed his win to a swing change he made on the last hole of the morning round.

"I'm a feel player and I wasn't feeling comfortable. I went through all the swing fixes I could think of," said Els, who celebrated his 34th birthday on Friday.

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"I finally found it on the 18th tee. I like to swing the club high at the top of the backswing. But I was lazy or tired and swinging across my body.

"Vijay was totally dominating me but those last three holes before lunch changed the outcome of the match."

Singh praised Els for the way he played in reaching the final.

He said: "I started to come back but Ernie was also playing well and didn't make many mistakes. To halve a hole in eagle shows how well he was playing.

"But for those first few holes this afternoon I would have been in business but I have to give credit to Ernie."

In the other semi-final, Bjorn finished two up on Curtis but had to fight all the way.

The Dane, who gifted the Open to Curtis in July with his collapse over the final few holes, was four up at one stage of the morning round before his opponent battled back to two down after 18.

The American persisted and drew level by winning the afternoon's ninth and 10th after Bjorn bogeyed both holes.

But Bjorn birdied 11 and 13 for a two-hole lead and, despite finding the trees on 16 and 17, held on - even winning the last.