Louis Oosthuizen Wins For The First Time in Five Years

Louis Oosthuizen holed a 25-foot putt on the final green to beat his great friend Charl Schwartzel and lift the Alfred Dunhill Championship at a rain-affected Leopard Creek - his first victory for five years.

He said: “I have wanted to win this since I first played here almost 20 years ago. I wasn’t going to play but changed my mind and I am so glad that I did. I knew I needed to play well to beat Charl, who has a great record around here. I made a few good putts along the way. This is a special place. I have made many, many good friends here.”

Oosthuizen closed with a three-under 69 to win by two strokes, but only after a nervy finish that saw him make bogey at the 17th and then dramatically save par at the last  after hitting his drive into water.

The climax to the tournament was delayed by a day after much of Sunday’s play was wiped out because of torrential rain and lightning.

Oosthuizen and Schwartzel, major champions and friends since their days playing junior golf, resumed on the eighth hole in a tie for the lead - three strokes clear of their nearest challenger, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

They were still tied with six holes to play, when Oosthuizen made birdies from 10 feet, 30 feet and 6 feet to move into a three-shot lead.

He gave one back on No. 17 and arrived at the 72nd hole with a two-stroke lead over Schwartzel, only to push his tee shot into a water hazard. He took a drop, chipped into the fairway and hit his fourth shot to about 25 feet, with Schwartzel on the green for a birdie opportunity from closer in.

However, Oosthuizen holed his putt and pumped his fist, knowing he had secured a 10th win on the European tour and a first since the South African Open in December 2018.

Louis Oosthuizen Profile

Oosthuizen was born on October 19, 1982 in Mossel Bay, South Africa.

His early career was supported financially for three years by the foundation of fellow South African golfer Ernie Els. He won numerous amateur titles before turning professional in 2002 at the age of 19.

He won five professional tournaments on the Sunshine Tour before his maiden success on what was the European Tour. In 2004 he won the Vodacome Origins of Golf and in 2007 he won the Dimension Data Pro-Am and Platinum Classic, as well as the Telkom PGA Championship in 2007 and 2008.

He played on the Challenge Tour in 2003 and graduated to the European Tour the following year.

In March 2010, he won his first European Tour event at the Open de Andalucia.

Later that year he stunned the world of golf by cruising to victory at The Open at St Andrews. Five years later he lost in a playoff at the same venue.

He was runner-up in The Masters in 2012 and holds the distinction of finishing runner-up in all four majors. In 2021 he finished tied second at the US PGA, second at the US Open and tied third at The Open.

He has 10 wins on the DP World Tour, winning the Volvo Golf Champions and Africa Open twice. He also won the South African Open in 2018, his last success until Leopard Creek.

In 2022 he signed for LIV Golf and gave up his membership of both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

He averages 296.2 yards from the tee, finds 67.59% of fairways, averages four birdies per round, hits 70.6% of greens in regulation and averages 27.40 putts per round.