CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – Louis Oosthuizen looked in trouble after swinging down on to a tree root with an approach shot at the second hole.
But the South African shook off the injury scare as a momentary jolt, and said it did not impair him during the PGA Championship third round.
Oosthuizen, who shook his right arm in discomfort after hitting the shot with his back against a tree, walked down the fairway with a physiotherapist working on him.
The 2010 Open Championship winner parred the hole and went on to register a level-par 71 for a five-under 208 total that left him two shots behind leader Kevin Kisner going into Sunday’s final round.
“It’s fine. It wasn’t hurting at all. I didn’t feel like it was painful or anything. It was just it got tight really quickly,” he told reporters.
“I could feel it all over. I thought it would be good to get the physio and release it. He just did a proper release of it. There was no pain. I could hit my shots, no worries.”
It was a strange day! My arm is fine. I just want a solid start tomorrow and we'll see what happens. pic.twitter.com/ycB5px6aOl
— Louis Oosthuizen (@Louis57TM) August 13, 2017
More worrisome for Oosthuizen was the condition of his eight-iron.
“I was going pretty steep on it. Took a big chunk out of it. Bent my eight-iron properly,” said Oosthuizen, who had to go with his seven-iron instead on two approach shots in the closing holes including the 16th, which he bogeyed.
Oosthuizen tried to bend the club back, but to no avail.
“I tried to fix it, but obviously I’m not good at that,” he said. “I got it to the club and they tried to fix it, but it was just right in the hosel where the shaft goes in.
Ping is already building me a new one and getting it to me.”