Ernie Els says he is likely to miss Dubai World Championship

Triple major winner Ernie Els is likely to withdraw from the season-ending Dubai World Championship, the South African said on Monday.

"I just don't know about Dubai and I don't know if I want to go there, and it's just that I am not a fan of the golf course out there," Els told Reuters.

"I love Dubai and I've won the Desert Classic three times but the golf course for the Dubai World Championship just doesn't suit my game. So at this stage I'm not going to play but then I will review what I'm going to do after the Shanghai event," he added.

Els, who finished joint 22nd at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland on Sunday, is fourth on the European Tour's Race to Dubai money list.

The $7.5-million world championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estate in Dubai, on a course designed by Greg Norman, starts on November 25.

Els confirmed he would contest the Nedbank Challenge starting on December 2 in Sun City in his native South Africa but not the December 16 South African Open at the Durban Country Club, an event he has won three times.

"The kids will be coming out of school on December 14 so I won't be playing the South African Open this year," he said.

"I then have to get myself to Hawaii in the first week of January for the opening event on the 2011 US Tour."

British world number two Lee Westwood, who is one place above Els on the Race to Dubai list, said on Sunday he was taking about a month off to allow a calf injury to heal but hoped to return for the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai starting on November 4.