Having been nine over par through his first 20 holes of the US Open Championship, Louis Oosthuizen finds himself one under after 54 and firmly in the frame to win a second Major.
A second successive round of 66 at Chambers Bay moved The 2010 Open Champion to one under par and within striking distance of the early third round pacesetter, American Dustin Johnson.
Oosthuizen’s day would have been truly spectacular had he converted just a fraction of the birdie chances he created, but the South African missed seven putts inside 15 feet on Chambers Bay’s notoriously testing greens.
Nonetheless, Oosthuizen was understandably delighted to have moved into position to launch a final day assault in Seattle, especially given his disastrous opening round of 77.
He said: “After a couple of holes of my second round, I didn’t think there was anyway way I’d be making the cut, let alone talking to the media after my third round. So it’s been a real turnaround, and no matter what happens now I’ll still be proud of the way I fought back.
“I started hitting the ball really well yesterday, then made a few putts. Then this morning I found a better swing with my driver on the range, and the rest of my game seemed to follow on from there. Today I hit it really close on a lot of holes, it could have been a lot lower.
“If I can hit it the way I did today, I think I’ve got a pretty good chance of putting a good number out there again tomorrow. I gave myself loads of birdie opportunities, which is what you need to do here because you’re not going to make many on these greens.
“Ball-striking is key, because you really need to pinpoint where you want to pitch it on the greens. The greens are so firm now, and the grass is pretty dead, so you need to really work the slopes on the greens to get your ball close. And I did that very well today.”
