Oost ousted by injury - Louis loses out on Grand Slam place
This year's Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen is out of next week's PGA Grand Slam of Golf, after the South African damaged ligaments in his left ankle.
The injury kept Oosthuizen out of last week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and thus a return to the home of his greatest triumph at St Andrews. And his non-attendance next week at the Mid Ocean Club leaves the Bermuda event short of not one, but two star turns.
The 36-hole Grand Slam event at Port Royal is supposed to gather the season's four major winners for a battle royal, but Phil Mickelson has already withdrawn from the tournament. The world No. 3 was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis earlier this year, and may welcome a rest after a somewhat disappointing season, that early Masters win aside.
With the tournament reserved for major winners, Mickelson will be replaced by three-time major champion Ernie Els. Oosthuizen's absence, apparently a consequence of the 27-year-old haplessly stepping into a pothole while on a hunting expedition with friend and fellow player Charl Schwartzel, will be filled by the USA's David Toms, who won the PGA Championship in 2001.
That leaves the year's two European major winners still set to contest the event, with PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer and US Open victor Graeme McDowell lining up for a chance to win.
While the need for alternatives to take part is hardly unknown - last year's event was the first for five years where all four of that year's winners were in attendance - this is the first time in 20 years that two of the year's four major winners have been no-shows.
Certainly, the prize money on offer certainly makes this two day event worth turning up for; the victor will take £376,000, while second place awards £188,000, third place £156,000 - even fourth and final place yields a not too shabby £125,000.
With that kind of dough on offer and David Toms' rather lean year, the 43-year-old may be quietly pleased that Oosthuizen's hunting trip ended with the Open champ putting his foot in it.
Tags: