139th Open championship; Claret Jug belongs to Louis Oosthuizen the new open champion
Louis Oosthuizen carded a victory of 71with 16 under par at the Old Course St Andrews making himself the 4th South African to win the open championship.
Swatting aside the challenge given by Lee West Wood, by striking a seven shot winning edge over the competitor, Louis Oosthuizen stood at the 1st position. Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson stood together at the 3rd.
Louis had a grand total of 272 with 65, 67, 69 and 71 in the in the four rounds respectively. His 1st round was the lowest with 65 and now it is the bench mark opening round by a winner in the opens. Regarding the -16, which is the second to the Tiger Wood’s -19 in 2000?
An interesting turn came in the game when Louis Oosthuizen, after opening with seven solid pars, took off his tee shot and missed a 10 foot par putt. Earlier Paul Casey had bogeyed the second hole but manage to squeeze a birdie on the 6th hole thus being, only three shots behind. Paul Casey managed very smoothly to the 352-yard green on the 9th hole, but Louis Oosthuizen answered Paul’s shot with a very calm 40 feet to green. Paul Casey drilled a birdie in an attempt to eagle, but Louis Oosthuizen calmly delivered an eagle putt thus taking a 4 shot lead.
All he needed was one putt to keep up the lead and that was what he did , when Paul Casey took his tee shot for the 12th hole and ended in a triple bogey as the ball landed in the gorse bushes the entire excitement that was build up by Paul ‘s birdie flushed away. Louis Oosthuizen birdied the 12th hole, to move eight shots ahead.
The 12th hole was tough for Louis Oosthuizen he knew if he missed this one anything could happen other than the victory. The 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th hole were all at par, but he carded a bogey on the 17th hole which was predictably the toughest hole on the course. Louis Oosthuizen's only mistake on the back nine was five at the mean 17th Road Hole.
Louis Oosthuizen wrapped up the tournament with -1 to par at the 18th hole.
While giving an acceptance speech of the victory at the 92nd birthday of Nelson Mandela, Louis Oosthuizen said, that while he was walking towards the tee of the 18th hole all he was thinking was what great sacrifices had Nelson Mandela given for their country. That was the moment he shot the ball and saw it rolling to the fairways.
After a long day at the St. Andrews with strong winds , South Africans are now pondering on what miracle has Shrek (the nickname for Louis Oosthuizen) done by being the 4th south African to win the Claret jug after Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els.
This was about the winner now for the runners up Lee Westwood carded out a 2 under 70 to finish second at 279, with a birdie at 9th, 13th 14th and 18th with two horrible bogeys at 12th and 17th hole. He started with 67 but gradually moved to 71, 71 and 70 in his final 4th round. Lee Westwood played close to the winner but lost although he was 8 shots behinds even then he did not seem disappointed.
Rory mc Ilroy ended with a birdie at: 5th, 9th,12th,14th and 18th, with an overall aggregate of 63,80 69 , 68 altogether 280. He stands at the top3 of the event.
Looks like we finally have a winner and that is none other than the least expected Louis Oosthuizen. Louis Oosthuizen played tremendously great and confident throughout the week especially after the first round despite of the bizarre weather conditions. All ended well with Paul Casey tipping his hat at the winner.
Tags: