Oosthuizen moves into new category

AUGUSTA -- Louis Oosthuizen certainly isn’t a Masters household name after failing to break par in his four rounds at Augusta National Golf Club and missing the cut in both of his appearances in the tournament.

But winning the British Open last summer has moved Oosthuizen into a new phase in his career. And he has moved up to a new level in the game of golf, especially considering he won by seven shots at St. Andrews.

“It seems like just yesterday to me,” Oosthuizen said of winning his first major. “It’s nice. Whenever I’m not playing well, I just look at some DVDs I got through the television and stuff just to have a look at how I played and what I can do different and things like that.

“It was a great tournament to win, and I’m just trying to move forward from that.”

That intensifies this week. Oosthuizen shot 73-77 in his first Masters appearance in 2009, and he followed that up with rounds of 75-77 last year.

“I think you need to play this golf course as many rounds, get as many rounds in here as you can,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s the type of course where, to me, it’s a second-shot golf course really. It all goes where you leave yourself, what type of birdie putt you leave yourself. You can get some slippery ones here. So I think you need to get used to, you might have putts that are not going to get within 6 or 8 feet and get your head around that and know you’re going to have a long-ish putt for par.

“That’s the main thing here, that you just need to know that you are going to have quite a few difficult putts.”

Rory Sabbatini, one of Oosthuizen’s South African countrymen in the field, certainly thinks Oosthuizen has taken a big step forward in his career.

“I definitely think it was fantastic for South African golf,” Sabbatini said. “It’s always kind of been there’s waves that come through, and Charl (Schwartzel) and Louis seem to be that next wave.”

As has been the case in recent years, there is a strong South African contingent in this year’s field. Trevor Immelman won the tournament in 2008, and he is joined by Ernie Els, Tim Clark, Retief Goosen, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel and Sabbatini.

“Obviously I think it’s strong as always,” Sabbatini said. “You’ve got Ernie, Retief, Louis, Charle, obviously Tim’s having trouble with his wrist, so he’s a little unsure. But I think it’s looking really good this year.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Oosthuizen moves into new category."