Louis makes history with six-stroke SA Open win

[Sunday, December 9, 2018 17:40:32]

Louis Oosthuizen cemented his place in the history books when he won the South African Open Championship hosted by the City of Joburg, co-sanctioned for the first time by the Sunshine Tour, the European Tour and the Asian Tour at Randpark Golf Club on Sunday.

His six-stroke victory over France’s Romain Langasque also earned him the unique distinction of being only the fourth South African player to claim the oldest open championships in the world, namely The Open Championship and the South African Open Championship. He joins Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els in that unique club of champions.

“I think I’m the fourth South African to do it,” he said after his victory. “It feels very special to have the two oldest opens in the world. There was a lot of emotions at the end there. It was a tough four days but I feel like I put everything together until the end.”

He came into the final round with a three-shot cushion over England’s Matt Wallace, Madalitso Muthiya of Zambia and his close personal friend Charl Schwartzel. A shaky start which was characterised by two back-to-back bogeys in his first three holes threatened to derail him as the chase for the number one spot gathered momentum behind him.

He recovered swiftly, however, and picked up birdies on the fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth holes to arrest what looked like a dangerous threat to his ambition of claiming his maiden national open.

“It looked like everyone started shaky today, except for Branden (Grace)” he remarked, “When I saw his name up there early on, I knew he was going to give a charge. All of a sudden, I had a one-shot lead and I tried to just narrow everything a little bit and got on fairways and greens to give myself opportunities. But I played well and I’m rolling the ball really good. If I had an easier shot with an iron, I would take it on. I just kept everything together nicely.”

He looked like he’d adopted a cautious approach on the homeward nine, making pars from the 10th through to the 13th holes, until he made an eagle on the 14th hole to get to 18-under and open a six-shot lead with four holes left. He followed that up with a birdie on the 16th but that was quickly written off his card when he bogeyed the par-three 17th before closing with a par on the last.

Already exempt for the open championship to be played at Royal Troon next season, Oosthuizen’s main objective was to win at Randpark while compatriot and friend, Schwartzel’s mission was two-sided. He wanted to claim his maiden South African Open Championship while eyeing a spot in The Open. He had to settle for the latter as he and England’s Oliver Wilson joined Langasque as the three players earning spots to the oldest open championship in the world after he finished in a share of third alongside Wilson and compatriots Bryce Easton and Thomas Aiken.

Aiken and Easton missed out on The Open Championship spots on account of their lower rankings in the Official World Golf Ranking standings.

Scores:

266 - Louis Oosthuizen 62 70 67 67

272 - Romain Langasque 69 68 69 66

274 - Bryce Easton 68 69 71 66, Thomas Aiken 67 68 72 67, Oliver Wilson 73 66 68 67, Charl Schwartzel 67 63 72 72

275 - Brandon Stone 71 67 71 66, Yikeun Chang 70 65 72 68, Anthony Michael 67 71 69 68, Haydn Porteous 68 70 68 69, Jbe' Kruger 66 67 72 70, Branden Grace 66 68 71 70, Jeff Winther 68 69 68 70, Madalitso Muthiya 63 68 71 73

276 - Kurt Kitayama 63 69 74 70, Zander Lombard 64 68 74 70, Tapio Pulkkanen 69 69 68 70, Robert Macintyre 70 67 68 71, Ernie Els 66 71 68 71, Matt Wallace 65 69 68 74

277 - Jarin Todd 68 72 69 68, Matias Calderon 68 71 67 71, Stuart Manley 67 71 68 71

278 - Marc Warren 68 71 70 69, Chris Paisley 70 70 67 71, Jovan Rebula 67 70 70 71, Laurie Canter 72 68 70 68, Bernd Ritthammer 67 69 69 73

279 - Ewen Ferguson 69 68 71 71, David McIntyre 66 72 70 71, Neil Schietekat 72 67 71 69, Adilson Da Silva 66 70 69 74

280 - Max Schmitt 66 72 71 71, Hennie Otto 69 68 72 71, Callum Shinkwin 68 71 70 71, Tyrone Ferreira 65 73 72 70

281 - Matthew Nixon 69 69 71 72, Alex Haindl 69 69 72 71, Jaco Van Zyl 70 67 74 70, Daniel Greene 70 68 68 75, Jake Roos 66 72 68 75, Matthew Jordan 67 73 74 67

282 - Austin Connelly 69 71 69 73, Henric Sturehed 68 71 71 72, Deon Germishuys 70 70 70 72, Gregory Bourdy 70 70 71 71, Yurav Premlall 73 67 72 70

283 - Joel Girrbach 70 69 69 75, Michael Palmer 70 70 71 72, Pedro Figueiredo 67 73 71 72, Mark Williams 65 68 72 78, Keith Horne 71 68 74 70, John Catlin 70 70 74 69

284 - Steven Brown 71 68 69 76, Shaun Norris 70 67 73 74, Wilco Nienaber 69 69 74 72, Tom Murray 66 73 74 71, Alejandro Canizares 73 66 75 70

285 - Daniel van Tonder 69 67 74 75, Jake Redman 68 72 71 74, CJ du Plessis 70 69 73 73, Jack Harrison 68 71 74 72, Alexander Knappe 73 66 75 71

286 - Callum Mowat 71 67 75 73

287 - Jacques Blaauw 70 69 73 75, Anton Haig 68 69 75 75, Duane Keun 71 67 78 71, David Gleeson 75 65 76 71

290 - Andre Nel 71 68 71 80, JJ Senekal 70 70 78 72

 


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