PHILIP REIDtalks to the unheralded South African who, following a fine opening 65, leads the chasing pack
STATISTICS, AS we all know, can be deceptive. Take the case of Louis Oosthuizen, for example. If you’d looked at his career record in the British Open – three missed cuts in his three previous appearances – and at his form in the previous two majors this year (missed cut-missed cut) – then the South African would hardly have caused anyone to give him a second glance.
In fact, Oosthuizen had also missed the cut in his last two outings – at the US Open and last weekend’s Scottish Open – and, going into yesterday’s first round here at St Andrews, his career stroke average in the British Open was an unhealthy 74.83, which represented 23-over-par. Hardly British Open winning statistics.
Forget all that. Yesterday, the 27-year-old – winner of the Andalucian Open back in April and now 54th in the official world rankings – rediscovered his best form as he shot an opening round 65 which left him as the main challenger to Rory McIlroy.
For a time, it even looked as if he would catch McIlroy as he entered the final stretch of holes just one stroke behind, only to run up a bogey on the 17th and fail to birdie the last. All in all, though, a decent day’s work for Oosthuizen.
Certainly, he wasn’t losing the run of himself afterwards.
“There’s a lot of golf left, a lot of golf,” he said.
Having missed the cut in his three previous British Opens – Troon (2004), Hoylake (2006) and Turnberry (2009) – Oosthuizen, a past winner of the Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin, rediscovered the art of playing links golf. Any secret?
“Not really, no. It was a matter of getting my confidence up. I think the win in Malaga early on in the year got my confidence going. This is holy ground we’re walking on. It’s just a nice feeling playing here . . . I like that kind of golf . . . . I think I read the greens around here quite nice. I’ve just got a nice feel on them.”
He added: “To be honest with you, I just made a few putts today. I’ve been hitting the ball well for a while and just haven’t been making any putts. Today was different with the putter.”
Oosthuizen and McIlroy, who are friendly off the course, have history chasing a title. In last year’s Dubai Desert Classic – where McIlroy won his first European Tour tournament – they were paired together for the final round. McIlroy shot a 70 to Oosthuizen’s 74 to capture a maiden title on tour.
Now, though, Oosthuizen has moved into new territory. This is his ninth career appearance in a major and he has only previously made the cut in one, the 2008 US PGA at Oakland Hills where he was a distant 73rd behind Pádraig Harrington.
Yesterday, Oosthuizen’s ran off a run of three successive birdies from the seventh to turn in 31 strokes and then added further birdies at the 10th, 14th and 15th before suffering his only bogey at the 17th where he pulled his approach shot and left himself blocked by the Road bunker.
“I couldn’t really go for the pin from where I was. It happens. That hole, you’ve got to be on top of every shot.”
So it is that Oosthuizen will resume today cast in the the role of chief pursuer to McIlroy. He is comfortable with that, and comfortable with St Andrews. He’s certainly put himself into position to change those poor statistics in the majors.
But, as he says himself, there’s a lot of golf to go yet.
