When your best prior major championship finish is a 73^rd placing in one and nothing but missed cuts in others people don’t really expect much from you when you show up to play the 139^th Open Championship. Throw in a back injury within the last few weeks and a name nobody can pronounce and you easily make the “rest of the field” category of any UK bookie.

But at least a few people knew exactly what Louis Oosthuizen was capable of and the whole world woke up to that as well as he pounced on the Claret Jug two days before it was set to be awarded and didn’t let go until he could rightfully claim it as his own.

The 27 year-old looked every bit a champion on the opening days of the Championship as he stormed to the top of the leaderboard with rounds of 65 and 67 as others faltered in the trying conditions. To most he looked to be the typical major championship anomaly that climbs the charts in the initial stages only to fade away. But Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen of Mossel Bay, South Africa did anything but. The dimming hopes were left to his challengers, among them some of the best players in the world including two Englishmen among the top ten ranked players in the world, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood.

But no man would lead on the Old Course this week other than the eventual champion after the 7^th hole of round two. It was from that point the man with the lone European Tour win to his credit would set the scoring standard.

By the time Saturday was complete Oosthuizen has added a 69 to his tally for the week and reached 15 under par, four clear of Casey.

Even with that lead the very modest leader was wise enough to know that anything could happen on Sunday and that he would have to be in control of himself. He used a glance to a red dot marked on his golf glove as a point of focus all day and at all times kept himself aware of the scoring situation, not letting himself think ahead to a certain victory.

It was not until early into the back nine Sunday, when most spectators and media had awarded him the victory (an eager fan had by then altered the Wikipedia entry to show him as the winner) that he began to sense that a victory could be his.

“Like I said again, I felt it was very tight,” said Oosthuizen when asked about when he knew it might be his day. “Three shots was nothing playing the back nine. But the minute Paul hit it in the bush on 12 and making that 7 and me making that putt for birdie was a huge thing.
You know, at that stage I had a lot of confidence in the holes that were coming up. I knew 13 and 14, to me, I don’t know, I like those holes. I felt I can make two birdies, really. 14, I hit a good putt on 14, just missed. And 15 and 16, I was always playing away from the right side. That was my play the whole week. The toughest challenge then was 17, and I had eight shots leading 17. You don’t really think about it; you just hit your drive.”

Of course the Road Hole is not just any hole and the 2010 Open Champion knew he still had work to do. “That’s one thing I learned in this game, you’re certain when the last putt goes in. You know, I didn’t want to make 6 or 7 on 17. My play was front edge, take a three-putt and walk to the next. When my tee shot was down on 18, I felt that was it. I’m definitely not going to 10-putt around there. I just hit the first putt way to the right and then didn’t really matter from there, and I was too excited, really.”

His wise play was rewarded with a 16 under par total and a clear victory on the 150^th anniversary of the championship.

Casey eventually posted a 75 for the day and Westwood would capture the Silver Salver for 2^nd place at 9 under par, 7 back of Oosthuizen.

And it was Casey who had the best seat in the house on the final day to watch Oosthuizen’s virtuoso performance and sum it up nicely. “That was four days of tremendous golf. He didn’t flinch today. I mean, his rhythm looked superb, he drove the ball beautifully; he was very calm. I’ve played with him many a time, but that was a world-class performance.”

World-class. Simple as that.

And as was said this week, with his ability most people wonder where Louis Oosthuizen has been up until now. Now that he has a major championship on his resume – one captured in dominant fashion, we eagerly wait to see where he can go from here.

This report provided to GolfWRX.com by Flagstick Golf Magazine (www.flagstick.com)