In the second part of our feature celebrating the achievements of Louis Oosthuizen and fellow South African Charl Schwartzel, europeantour.com looks at how Oosthuizen’s Open Championship inspired his friend to Masters Glory.
As starry-eyed youngsters growing up in South Africa, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel would spend countless hours on the practice putting green stood over the same fictional putt to win one of golf’s Major Championships.
Louis Oosthuizen’s majestic Open Championship victory at St Andrews 12 months ago was a realisation of that shared dream. It also proved the catalyst, the shot of self-belief in the arm, for his younger compatriot, and close friend, Charl Schwartzel to go on and fulfil his own childhood ambition.
Just as Rory McIlroy revealed that Graeme McDowell’s US Open victory gave him the confidence that he could win himself at Congressional Country Club last month, Oosthuizen’s triumph at the Home of Golf instilled a conviction inside Schwartzel that he could not only aspire to Major glory himself, but actually go on to achieve it, which he did so dramatically at the Masters Tournament in April.
Success breeds success and it was just a month after McDowell’s triumph at Pebble Beach last June, the first of five consecutive European Tour wins in Major Championships, that Oosthuizen sensationally blew away the field at St Andrews.
As Oosthuizen soaked up the splendour of striding over the Swilcan Bridge with a seven shot lead that July afternoon, Schwartzel stood next to his compatriot’s wife, Nel-Mare, sharing in every moment of his finest hour.
“To see Louis win the Claret Jug in St Andrews made me so proud,” said Schwartzel. “It was something you always dreamed of and it was something we always spoke about growing up together. To see someone close to you do it was such a big inspiration. It was just fantastic to see.
“Standing by the green and watching him walk up the 18th I actually choked a bit. But I don’t like to talk about those things!
“You stand there and look at it and see someone close to you do it, who you have spent so much time with, and it inspires you. It makes you believe that you can also do it. It opens your eyes. You feel it a little more.
“You can fall in the trap of thinking winning a Major is such a big thing that your mind stops you from thinking you can win. Although you believe you can win, the difference between thinking and actually believing is great. Louis winning at St Andrews made me actually believe I could win.”
Fast forward nine months and Schwartzel drew on every ounce of that belief when he found himself in contention at Augusta National.
If Oosthuizen’s St Andrews back nine proved something of a victory parade, Schwartzel’s four successive closing birdies to claim the Green Jacket was a pulsating polar opposite, inspired by his friend lifting the Claret Jug the previous summer.
While Schwartzel was among the first to congratulate his friend at St Andrews, Oosthuizen missed the cut at Augusta National and was already en route to the next week’s tournament in Malaysia, when it became clear that Schwartzel was about to follow him into the elite group of Major Champions.
“I was just disappointed I wasn’t there,” said Oosthuizen. “It was one of those things, I had to make a decision. I was at the airport. I kept the plane back so I could see the last putt. If I didn’t get on the plane I would not have made it to Malaysia. So that was not nice but I phoned his wife immediately when it was won.
“When you are standing there as a kid you always say ‘this to win the Masters’ or ‘this to win The Open’. On the 18th at Augusta, having that putt – he’d practised that one hundred thousand times when we were kids. It was just amazing for both of us to have the chance to do it.”
Remarkably Oosthuizen insists he was more uneasy watching his friend on television than he was winning the Claret Jug himself last year.
“The thing what Charl didn’t see, which we all did, was the golf being played that last nine by everyone and how tight it really was,” he said. “It was just phenomenal seeing him play after the bogey on four, then make the ten pars and finish with four birdies. It was just amazing to see. Watching people trying to make those birdies on the last holes – Tiger and everyone – and they couldn’t, and then just seeing Charl’s focus on the last four holes was amazing.
“I was so much more nervous watching that than I was when I won The Open. I was so nervous. Because you are not in control. I was so much more nervous than he was, that’s for sure. If you are in control you are different. Sitting watching back St Andrews on TV now, I think I know what my wife went through at The Open and what Rosaline went through on the course at the Masters. It’s not great.
“As a player, once you are in that situation you are actually more comfortable. When he watches it on television, I promise you he will be more nervous. A few shots he will stand there and think look at that! To me when it was only a month or two after that it really sunk in that he had won. I sat down and watched it again. I suspect it’ll be the same for Charl.”
As Oosthuizen prepares to defend the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s next week and bring down the curtain on a year that changed his life forever, the 28 year old is looking forward to building his legacy and join compatriots such as Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen as multiple-major winners.
“We always knew, Charl and I, that someone just had to make that step just to win a Major and I was just lucky I was the first,” he said “If Charl did it before me I would have been inspired to go out and do it, just like I am now after him winning the Masters.
“Even though I’ve won The Open I’m inspired again to go for the second one. It just needed someone to make the breakthrough. It could have been either of us I feel. I always felt like we had the game to do it. It’s just the belief to go out and actually do it.
Just as the pair shared that childhood dream of becoming Major Champions, Schwartzel is once again unified with Oosthuizen’s vision, joining his pursuit of winning more of golf’s most coveted titles.
“You can’t say you are going to win three or four more Majors but once you get over that first barrier and you get in the same situation again it will help you the next time,” said Schwartzel. “Knowing that you have done it before. Just having that confidence makes a big difference in those big situations.”
