To weakly paraphrase Bob Dylan, as far as the world of golf is concerned, something”s going on here and we don”t know what it is. Louis Oosthuizen is the new British Open champion and he won it in such a way that one might have thought that the spirit of Tiger Woods was in the final pairing on Sunday, running off to a seven-stroke margin of victory over the rest of the field. It was a truly dominant performance against a world-class field in golf”s oldest major.
Oosthuizen is a 27-year-old who is a regular on the European Tour. He won his first title of note earlier this March when he captured the Open de Andalucia in Spain by three strokes over Robert Finch and Peter Whiteford. The Andalucia event is a B-level tournament on the European Tour as a number of Europe”s top golfers were competing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill that same weekend on the PGA Tour.
When he teed it up Thursday at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Oosthuizen was ranked 54th in the world. The betting parlors in Great Britain listed him at 200-1. On a day when Irishman Rory McIlroy would shoot an impressive 63 to take the first-round lead, Oosthuizen carded a rock-solid 65. The next day when the wind howled and everyone went backward, including McIlroy, who shot an 80, Louis turned in the low round of the day, a 5-under-par 67, to vault into first place by five shots. He led Paul Casey by four strokes on Saturday following a 69, and added a 71 on Sunday to waltz to victory.
Oosthuizen”s victory was totally unexpected. He had missed the cut in two Masters appearances, missed the cut at Pebble Beach in June in his only U.S. Open try, missed the cut in three previous British Opens, and had a missed cut and a 73rd-place finish at the PGA Championship. True, he had relative success on South Africa”s Sunshine Tour, winning five times on that winter circuit since 2004, but up until last week, Oosthuizen had given little indication of being a world-beater on one of golf”s most glamorous stages.
Yet while Oosthuizen”s dynamic win at St. Andrews was unexpected, it did fit the profile of major winners in what very well may be the post-Tiger era. After all, Y.E. Yang is the reigning PGA champion and Graeme McDowell is the U.S. Open titlist. Lucas Glover won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage and Stewart Cink held up the Claret Jug at Turnberry one year ago.
Yang, Glover, McDowell and Cink all fit the journeyman profile. They have nice careers, bank millions, win the occasional Honda Classic or Greater Hartford Open, rank among the world”s top 75, and stay eligible to compete year after year on the PGA Tour and European Tour. They are not in golf”s hierarchy as are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington, and they are not as well known as Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Steve Stricker. They do have a major title on their golfing resume.
Regardless of the earlier Bob Dylan line, we do know what is going on. It”s always been that way in golf. There have always been linksters such as Oosthuizen, McDowell and the other major champions of the 21st century. If you really want to talk about major champions from way out in left field, one need look back just a few years to recall that the British Open champs were Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton along with former PGA winners Shaun Michael and Rich Beem. Now that”s a foursome from the fringes of fame.
Golf”s modern era of the 1960s and 1970s featured some of the game”s all-time greats. The top players of that era won often. We”re talking about Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Billy Casper, Julius Boros and Raymond Flod. However, the big guns can”t win a major every time, and the depth of the world”s golfers is way too deep to approximate professional tennis. Gifted golfers of that time such as Tom Weiskopf, Gene Littler, Bob Charles, Al Geiberger and Roberto de Vicenzo each won a single major. Johnny Miller, Dave Stockton and Tony Jacklin won twice.
Nonetheless, we”re talking about four grand slam events every year, which resulted in some one-hit wonders such as Charles Coody, Dave Marr, Bobby Nichols, Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Bob Goalby and Gay Brewer. Orville Moody is the ultimate one-time major winner in that his U.S. Open victory in 1969 at Champions was his only PGA Tour win during a 17-year career.
Golf”s pre-Nicklaus and post-Nicklaus eras tell a similar story. While Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead were the dominant trio of the time and golfers such as Bobby Locke, Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff and Peter Thomson won three or more majors apiece, there were a number of unexpected champions. First and foremost was Jack Fleck, who upset Hogan in the ”55 U.S. Open at Olympic Club. Other one-time major winners included Dick Mayer, Dow Finsterwald, Chick Harbert, Bob Rosburg, Jim Ferrier, Jim Turnesa, Claude Harmon and the Hebert brothers, Jay and Lionel.
In the years after Nicklaus and before Tiger, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo won a handful or more major championships. Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin, Payne Stewart and Nick Price each won three times. Name players such as Davis Love III, Freddie Couples, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Kite and Paul Azinger won their one major. Lesser-known golfers such as Jeff Sluman, Larry Mize and Wayne Grady also happen to have a major championship title on their tournament resumes. Andy North has two U.S. Opens.
In the end, it”s all about who”s hot that week, especially with the putter, who”s lucky, and who can control their emotions. There is such a fine line between superstar and journeyman that sometimes Tiger Woods wins and on occasion Rich Beem wins. There may be more titles on the horizon for Louis Oosthuizen and yet this could be his only major win. This past weekend he was just as good at St. Andrews as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros and Sam Snead. He played the course as successfully as they once did, and that”s why he went home with the Claret Jug.
