Yessir! Louis Oosthuizen (as far as I can tell it is pronounced "oost-hey-zen") from South Africa won The Open Championship on Sunday. Not only did he win, becoming the 5th South African to win a major, he ran away with it, winning by 7 strokes.
Oosthuizen has fellow South African, and former Open champ, Ernie Els, to thank for his victory on Sunday. As a junior Oosthuizen was enrolled in the Els Foundation for aspiring junior players who may not have the means to pursue the game at the high level. The work paid off.
Oosthuizen, the man they call "Shrek", maintained his lead after round two and was never surpassed. When Paul Casey got close on Sunday, Louis calmly drained a 50 foot eagle putt. The youngster who had never won a tournament of this magnitude seemed cool and collected and flourished when the lights were brightest.
His victory was the topper on an eventful weekend of golf that saw Rory McIlroy shoot a record 63 in the first round, follow it up with an +8 80 in round two and battle back to finish at -8 in a tie for third. We saw Tiger start the tourney with a new putter, only to see his putting woes continue and go back to the old putter for Sunday - which didn't help anything. Phil was all over the place and the wind was a major character as usual. The 4 Major Championship trophies now rest on 4 different continents, which speaks to the global power of the game. (Phil has the green jacket, U.S.A.; Graeme McDowell the U.S. Open trophy, N. Ireland; Y.E. Yang the PGA Championship, South Korea; and now Oosthuizen the Claret Jug, South Africa)
All in all this was everything we've come to expect from an Open Championship.
The next major, and final of the year, will be next month for the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits Golf Club in Wisconsin.
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