While hopes are high in the United States that a home country favourite can win next week’s Masters Tournament, without question the country possessing the players most in form heading for Augusta National is South Africa.
Trevor Immelman, in 2008, was the last South African to slip the Green Jacket onto his shoulders – following in the footsteps of the legendary Gary Player who triumphed in 1961, ’74 and ’78 – but hopes are understandably high among Springbok golfing fans alike that they could be poised to herald their third Masters Champion.
Leading the charge will be a supremely resurgent Ernie Els who moved to seventh place on the Official World Golf Ranking following his back-to-back triumphs in the World Golf Championships – CA Championship at Doral and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
Bolstering the South African challenge are Els’ fellow countrymen and European Tour members, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, both of whom also came through the auspices of the Ernie Els Foundation when youth golfers in South Africa.
Oosthuizen proved he was bang in form with a fine period of recent form on The European Tour, finishing second to Rhys Davies in the Trophée Hassan II in Morocco before claiming his maiden Tour title the following week in the Open de Andalucia de Golf.
Schwartzel started the year in blistering form with back to back victories in the Africa Open and the Joburg Open before finishing second to his good friend Els in the CA Championship, in a week where he eschewed hotel accommodation and stayed at Els’ house instead. The performance also moved Schwartzel back to the top of The Race to Dubai.
It is symptomatic of the close relationship enjoyed by all the South Africans on Tour – and there is real hope that one of them will be able to give the Masters Tournament Green Jacket house room come next Sunday night.
