Oosthuizen could have lucky charm
Louis Oosthuizen is just four shots off Rory McIlroy's lead after carding a third-round 66 in the USPGA Championship
Louis Oosthuizen is just four shots off Rory McIlroy's lead after carding a third-round 66 in the USPGA Championship
Words: Robin Barwick
Louis Oosthuizen is not expected to win the 2014 PGA Championship today. No-one is apart from Rory McIlroy. But then Oosthuizen was not supposed to win the PGA Championship’s Longest Drive Competition on Tuesday either, but he still did.
Oosthuizen stepped onto the 10th tee late in the day on Tuesday to blaze his drive 340 yards to win the PGA of America’s prize of a gold money clip. Yesterday the South African shot his second round of 67 in as many days to sit at 204 for three rounds, nine under par, and four shots behind leader McIlroy.
“I putted beautifully,” started Oosthuizen, 31, after his round. “I missed a few putts over the edges, but I made some good ones as well. The way the golf course is playing now, you can attack quite a bit, and you don’t often get that opportunity in a major. It will be fun tomorrow and I will try to give myself as many birdie opportunities as I can, because I feel like my putter is really behaving.”
Who knows, perhaps that gold money clip the 2010 Open champion won on Tuesday could be a good omen. The gold clip was given as the prize because of the story of Jack Nicklaus, who won a similar money clip for winning the PGA Championship’s Longest Drive Contest back in 1963 – a money clip the Golden Bear still uses to this day.
Recalled Nicklaus recently: “George Bayer was the longest hitter on the PGA Tour at the time, he was the favourite to win the Contest, but I upset him and won it. To this day, I feel it was one of the greatest victories of my career.” As it happens, once Nicklaus had won that gold money clip back in 1963, he went on to win the PGA Championship that week too. Louis, take note.
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Robin Barwick travelled to the PGA Championship courtesy of Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz is the official car of the PGA Championship
Nick Bonfield joined Golf Monthly in 2012 after graduating from Exeter University and earning an NCTJ-accredited journalism diploma from News Associates in Wimbledon. He is responsible for managing production of the magazine, sub-editing, writing, commissioning and coordinating all features across print and online. Most of his online work is opinion-based and typically centres around the Majors and significant events in the global golfing calendar. Nick has been an avid golf fan since the age of ten and became obsessed with the professional game after watching Mike Weir and Shaun Micheel win The Masters and PGA Championship respectively in 2003. In his time with Golf Monthly, he's interviewed the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Billy Horschel and has ghost-written columns for Westwood, Wayne Riley, Matthew Southgate, Chris Wood and Eddie Pepperell. Nick is a 12-handicap golfer and his favourite courses include Old Head, Sunningdale New, Penha Longha, Valderrama and Bearwood Lakes. If you have a feature pitch for Nick, please email nick.bonfield@futurenet.com with 'Pitch' in the subject line. Nick is currently playing: Driver: TaylorMade M1 Fairway wood: TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2 Hybrid: Ping Crossover Irons (4-9): Nike Vapor Speed Wedges: Cleveland CBX Full Face, 56˚, Titleist Vokey SM4, 60˚ Putter: testing in progress! Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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