PGA Championship contender gets brutal break on back nine at Kiawah

While the madness of the final pairing took place just behind him, Louis Oosthuizen plodded along under the radar just ahead. Paired with Kevin Streelman in the penultimate pairing, Oosthuizen was still firmly in contention to win the PGA Championship.

Despite an atrocious day of driving and putting in Round 3 — he ranked outside the top 70 in both categories — Oosthuizen still had a terrific chance to play spoiler when he turned to the back nine at the Ocean Course. But with one errant swing, not to mention an atrocious break, his hopes of claiming a second major championship took a huge hit.

Oosthuizen stepped to the 10th tee just two shots behind Phil Mickelson’s lead and in great position to make a back-nine charge. But as he still struggled to control his driver, he pushed his drive well right of the fairway toward one of the Ocean Course’s many sandy areas.

Many of the sandy areas on Kiawah Island are not terrible to play from, but the spot Oosthuizen’s ball ended up was not typical. His ball came to rest in a thick patch of grass just outside the sandy area, leaving him a near-impossible shot.

Oosthuizen called a rules official in hopes of getting embedded ball relief, but with local rules stating that there is no embedded ball relief in sandy areas, he was forced to play the ball as he found it.

While members of the broadcast questioned if Oosthuizen could even advance the ball back to the fairway, the South African took a mighty hack and popped the ball back out into the fairway. From there, he hit his approach onto the green and two-putted for an ill-timed bogey.

Oosthuizen may not have had the necessary charge in his to make a back-nine run at the Wanamaker Trophy, but a horrendous break like that did him no favors in his pursuit.