South Africa has produced some great golfers, in fact great athletes. Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els are household names in golf..
How about these .. Jody Schecter 1979 F1 champ, Gerrie Coetzee who won a WBA heavyweight title..Roger Federer is Swiss and also South African along with other tennis players like Amanda Coetzer and Frew MacMillan and Bob Hewitt perhaps the worlds best ever doubles team. How about gold medal swimmers Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend and of course the list of rugby and cricket stars is a long one..Remember Zola Budd ??..
Anyhow suffice to say Louis Oosthuizen was virtually unknown outside of European tour circles until his week of weeks at St Andrew's where he drove the ball superbly all week long and made nearly every clutch putt to win the Open championship going away from Lee Westwood. He won by 7 shots !!!
I have him at #7 because he just blew away the world's best with a complete display of golf that just goes to show that any of these guys can win if it's their week.
Paul Azinger who was commenting for ABC simply embarrassed himself all week by not being able to pronounce his name and I dare say it was not a memorable competition, so dominant was the diminutive South African
He shot 71 on the Old Course to finish with a four-round total of 16- under-par 272. He never relinquished the lead after taking it in the second round.
Lee Westwood finish second at 9-under, one shot better than countryman Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
I remember Paul Casey who shot 3-over-par 75, was four shots behind when he triple-bogeyed the 12th hole after hitting it into the gorse to end any challenge to Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen was hardly heard from for the rest of the year until he got into contention at the South African Open that Ernie won just before Christmas..
Maybe he'll be like Mike Weir or Trevor Immelman who had their week of week's at the Masters. One thing is for sure, most players go an entire career without a major win, but Louis Oosthuizen has his even if he never wins again.
He will always be the 2010 Open Champion and almost as important my pick at #7 !!
Next #6 Rory McIlroy's 62 to win Quail Hollow
Bryan Angus
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