Golf Special Report: Retief Goosen- The South African professional golfer (Part 2)
In 2003, Goosen won the Trophée Lancôme for the second time continuing his great run of success on French soil. He had five other top 10 finishes in the European Tour but his main focus continued to be the PGA Tour. In America he won the Chrysler Championship
and finished in the top 10 nine times, including runner up in The International and 3rd in the Tour Championship. In the 2003, Presidents Cup held in his native state of South Africa he played for the International side captained by Gary Player
and contributed 3 points to his team’s total.
Retief won his second major in 2004, again at the U.S Open. The USGA had prepared an extremely tough course at Shinnecock Hills which many players argued was unfair. Going into the final round, many players crashed out, leaving only Phil Mickelson and Retief
in contention for the title. In one of the greatest displays of putting in U.S Open history Goosen made 11 one-putt greens and 31 one-putts. He needed only 24 and so triumphed over Mickelson by just 2 strokes.
Also in the same year, he won the Tour Championship in a dramatic fashion. He was trailing by four strokes to leader Tiger Woods going into the final round. Woods however squandered his lead by “putting like a blind man”; Goosen on the other hand made 3
birdies to clinch the championship by 4 strokes. This allowed him to finish 6th on the Money List for 2004, his career best.
2004 marked the start of the “Big Five Era” in golf. Similar to the Big Three Era of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player, the Big Five Era saw Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen dominate the game of golf. Between them, they won
9 majors, often competing against each other. From 2004 till 2007, they mostly stayed in the top 5 positions of the World Golf Rankings.
In 2005, Goosen narrowly missed the opportunity to win his third U.S Open. Leading by three strokes after three rounds he “messed up badly” in the final round to finish tied for 11th place. Overall, however, the 2005 season went pretty well for
Goosen. He won the International, tied for 3rd at the Masters, tied for 5th at the Open Championship, tied for 6th at the PGA Championship and had 8 other top 10 finishes.
2006 was the first year since 2001 in which Retief did not win any event on U.S soil. He still managed to place in the top 5 four times, including runner up at the Players Championship and 3rd at the U.S Masters. He did manage to win an even at
home however: The South African Airways Open. In China, he successfully defended his Volkswagen Masters title which he had also won the previous year.
2007 and 2008 saw Goosen suffer a slump in his form. Despite kicking off 2007 with a win at the Qatar Masters and finishing second at the Masters tournament, he generally had a bad year. He attributed this to changes he had made to his swing and his hiring
of a swing coach for the first time in his career. During this time, he slumped to 26th in the World Rankings. At the start of 2008, he had to undergo corrective laser surgery for his vision and missed the chance to defend his title at Qatar. He
had an inconsistent year generally but managed to win the Iskandar Johar Open and regain some of his old form at the close of the year.
At the start of 2009, Retief rededicated himself to golf, with help from his swing coach and a new fitness regime inspired by Gary Player. He won at the African Open and the Transitions Championship, his 7th win at the PGA Tour, and finished in
the top ten 8 times. He continued this form into 2010 with 3 consecutive top 10 finishes. His 4th place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational propelled him to No.15 in the World Golf Rankings. Despite suffering from multiple injuries mid-season,
he still managed to finish with 14 top tens and 6 top fives.
“The Goose” now looks to start 2011 with a flourish and end his winning drought. With his re-energized game and newfound self-confidence, he is one of the major players to look out for this season.
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