While Louis Oosthuizen may have played on many of golf’s biggest global stages, he admits there is nothing like playing at home as he returns to defend an Alfred Dunhill Championship title which he ranks among the best of his career.
The Major Champion is making his 16th appearance at the co-sanctioned DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour event this week, with 12 of those coming at the world-renowned Leopard Creek.
After two runner-up finishes across that time, Oosthuizen fulfilled a long sought-after ambition as he won last year’s weather-affected Alfred Dunhill Championship by two strokes from countryman Charl Schwartzel to end a five-year wait for silverware.
The South African is one of eight of the last champions teeing it up this week as he looks to become only the third player – after Spain’s Pablo Martin and record four-time winner Schwartzel – to successfully defend his title.
“It was a bit of a struggle in the end with the weather last year. But it’s something I still consider as one of my best achievements because this golf course had always found a way to bite me, and to pull it through having to beat Charl (Schwartzel), who is king around this place, felt really good,” Oosthuizen said ahead of Thursday’s first round.
Part of the unique attraction that brings golfers back to Leopard Creek year-in year-out is how the course sits at the border of the Kruger National Park.
And even as someone who has experienced the chance to see the Big Five on many occasions, Oosthuizen is eager to enjoy the week in the South African bush.
“Just being here, I don’t spend a lot of time in South Africa anymore and to come and see the park, take my car and drive around in the park is something very special.
“This is as South African as it gets. It is just a special week and to be in play in front of a home crowd is very special.”
Oosthuizen is part of a stellar South African challenge which includes multiple DP World Tour winners Thriston Lawrence, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ockie Strydom and Brandon Stone among others.
But there is also a strong crop of young talent, including Aldrich Potgieter who came up just short of winning his first DP World Tour title on home soil at last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge.
Potgieter won The Amateur Championship in 2022 at the age of 17 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club and became the youngest ever winner on the Korn Ferry Tour last season when clinching The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic in January.
Having only turned 20 in September, Potgieter, who has a PGA TOUR card for 2025, almost made it a dream debut in Sun City and is eager to maintain that momentum.
“I am feeling good,” he reflected.
“Just enjoying last week’s experience and still looking for the stuff that didn’t happen but trying to take it all to this week and have a good four days.”
