ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It’s easily the greatest walk in golf. Or maybe any sport.
Especially when you know you can make a 10 and still win. Even with tears in your eyes.
Sunday, on the Old Course, those final 100 or so yards up the 18th fairway belonged to South African Louis Oosthuizen.
Everyone on the BBC telecast seemed to pronounce his name a little differently. Go with WHUST-high-zen. It’s close enough. As long as the engraver can spell it correctly on the claret jug.
After two-putting for one-under 71 to make the seven-stroke victory official, Oosthuizen was greeted on the green by his wife Nel-Mare and their seven-month-old daughter Jana. More wet eyes. And warm embraces. Jana won’t remember any of it. But she’ll sure have plenty of pictures and stories to remind her.
“Without you, it wouldn’t be worth it,” he told them and the whole world later at his acceptance speech.
Back home, after a month of hosting the World Cup, Nelson Mandela was turning 92 years young. Wonder if those vuvuzela’s are used for anything besides soccer?
“I woke up this morning and didn’t know it was his birthday until I heard it on the news, on the Internet,” Oosthuizen said. “That’s amazing. It felt a bit special. Walking down 18, I was thinking about that. What he’s done for our country is unbelievable.”
South Africans Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have won 18 majors between them, including eight Open Championships. Locke was victorious here in 1957. Now Oosthuizen is part of that. Player reached out to him before the final round.
“He phoned me this morning,” said Oosthuizen, who closed with a 272 total, two better than Tiger Woods did here in 2005 and seven better than England’s Lee Westwood could do this week en route to his second runner-up in a major this year. “We had a little chat. He spoke in my home language, Afrikaans. He first spoke to my wife. Then he was saying just to stay calm, have a lot of fun.
“And he said the crowd was probably going to be on (playing partner Paul Casey’s side). Then he told me the story when he played against Arnold Palmer when he won his first Masters (in 1961). He said, ‘They wanted to throw stuff at me.’ But he was so focused on beating him in Augusta. That meant a lot.”
His caddie, Zak Rasego, also carried Player’s bag when he won the British Senior at Turnberry two decades ago.
“It’s a fantastic day for us,” Rasego gushed. “I’ve been with him through all his progress. It’s unbelievable what he’s done this week.”
On the 150th anniversary of the first Open, Oosthuizen also joins the list of other giants who’ve made that same walk on this sacred turf: Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Peter Thomson, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Woods.
“To win the Open is special,” Oosthuizen said. “To win here is something you dream about.”
He’s the first to get his first major at St. Andrews since Tony Lema 46 years ago.
The reality is, it was pretty much his tournament from the time he assumed a five-shot edge after Friday’s 67, when he got the better of the starting times/wind conditions and didn’t waste it. He followed with a 69 that still left him four in front of Casey, who, like Westwood, was trying to become the first man from his nation to win a major since Faldo in 1996 (Masters). Or win this one since Faldo in 1992.
Casey started with a bogey on two but birdied the sixth. Oosthuizen, after seven consecutive pars, dropped one at the 8th and the lead was three. Both players drove the ensuing par four. But Oosthuizen made his eagle, while Casey two-putted. Things basically ended at 12, when Casey drove into gorse and took a triple-bogey while Oosthuizen was making bird.
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