Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen returns to action at one of The European Tour’s most iconic venues this week, the breathtaking Crans-Sur-Sierre Golf Club, for the Omega European Masters.
The South African is back on European soil for the first time since following up his Major Championship breakthrough over the Old Course at St Andrews with a fourth place finish in the Nordea Scandinavian Masters, looking to overhaul his fellow countrymen Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel in the Race to Dubai.
Oosthuizen will headline an impressive field in the event co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour for the second successive year that includes Edoardo Molinari and Miguel Angel Jiménez, two men looking to continue the magnificent form that saw them cement their places in Colin Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup Team last week at Gleneagles.
Jiménez is making his 22nd consecutive appearance at Crans this week and still seeking his first victory in the event having finished second in 1993 and 2004.
Molinari, meanwhile, might be able to fly from Scotland to the Swiss Alps without the help of an aeroplane given his superhuman performance last week.
Molinari needed something special to impress Europe’s Ryder Cup Captain as Montgomerie prepared to make his three Captain’s picks and he delivered in style. Two strokes behind Australian Brett Rumford, the 2007 Omega European Masters Champion, with three holes to play at Gleneagles, the Italian though refused to lie down and showed the kind of spirit and determination that makes a great Ryder Cup player by birdieing his final three holes to win the championship.
It was a performance Montgomerie went on to describe as the best under pressure he had ever seen in his 25 years on The European Tour and secured a Ryder Cup debut alongside his brother Francesco at The Celtic Manor Resort in five weeks. They will be the first European brothers to play in The Ryder Cup.
While two of Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup players will grace the magnificent Crans-Sur-Sierre, three of his Vice Captains – Thomas Björn, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley – will be looking to show they can still mix it with The European Tour’s next generation.
Among that next generation will be defending champion Alex Noren, who captured his first European Tour title at last year’s Omega European Masters.
Representing the other end of the age spectrum is one of golf’s all-time greats, Greg Norman, who finished third at the Swiss Open – the predecessor to the Omega European Masters – in 1980, and will be appearing at Crans-sur-Sierre for the first time since 1995.
