It hasn’t been a particularly good year for South African golfers on the fairways of the world, but two of this country’s Major winners, close friends Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, can turn a mediocre season into a stellar one in the next 11 days.
Both are in the line-up for the $6,5-million Nedbank Golf Challenge beginning on the Gary Player Country Club course at Sun City tomorrow, and their names also appear among the entries for the e1,5-million Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek from Thursday to Sunday next week.
Schwartzel will be the defending champion at Leopard Creek, after winning there in 2012 with an outstanding 24-under-par return of 264, as well as 12 months ago on 17-under 271. So he is going for a hat-trick. A year ago the former world’s top 10 player and winner of the 2011 Masters was ranked 18th in the world. Now he has dropped to 30th.
Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion and a man with one of the best swings in golf, was once ranked as high as fourth in the world but has now plummeted to 55th.
Much of this can be put down to battling a series of injuries, which in 2014 has centred on recurring problems with his back.
Clearly, though, when Charl – who has won nine times on the European Tour and seven times on the Sunshine Tour – and Louis, who has 12 world-wide wins to his name, are at their best they are world-beaters, and in golf you can suddenly find your best form and in the next instant lose it.
It is, as that great writer Peter Dobereiner once shrewdly described it, ‘the game with a hole in it’.
Schwartzel’s best finish in the Nedbank Golf Challenge has been second in 2012 when Oosthuizen was fourth, which is also his best showing. Whether the two friends can challenge for top honours this week and next week remains to be seen, but they both have the talent and therefore there’s always a chance.
There are seven South African in the 30-man Sun City line-up, the others being Tim Clark, George Coetzee, Dawie van der Walt, Danie van Tonder and Jaco Ahlers who cracks a coveted spot by virtue of his Lion of Africa Cape Town Open play-off victory at Royal Cape on Sunday.
THIS YEAR’S NEDBANK BY THE NUMBERS:
Past Champions (3):
Thomas Bjørn – 2013
Martin Kaymer – 2012
Lee Westwood – 2010, 2011
Major Champions (3):
Martin Kaymer – 2010 PGA Championship, 2014 US Open
Charl Schwartzel – 2011 Masters
Louis Oosthuizen – 2010 Open Championship
2014 European Ryder Cup players (5):
Thomas Bjørn
Martin Kaymer
Lee Westwood
Jamie Donaldson
Stephen Gallacher
Former World Number Ones (3):
Martin Kaymer
Luke Donald
Lee Westwood
THE 30-MAN LINE-UP
Thomas Bjørn (Denmark)
Martin Kaymer (Germany)
Lee Westwood (England)
Charl Schwartzel (South Africa)
Jamie Donaldson (Wales)
Stephen Gallacher (Scotland)
Dawie van der Walt (South Africa)
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand)
Luke Donald (England)
Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain)
Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand)
Ross Fisher (England)
Kevin Na (United States)
Tim Clark (South Africa)
Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa)
Marcel Siem (Germany)
Joost Luiten (Netherlands)
Brooks Koepka (United States)
Shane Lowry (Ireland)
Marc Warren (Scotland)
George Coetzee (South Africa)
Tommy Fleetwood (England)
Danny Willett (England)
Alexander Lévy (France)
Danie van Tonder (South Africa)
Mikko Ilonen (Finland)
Pablo Larrazabal (Spain)
Jonas Blixt (Sweden)
Brandon Todd (United States)
Jaco Ahlers (South Africa) - The Star