The post ‘It just sucks’: LIV pro Louis Oosthuizen complains about Presidents Cup ban appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘It just sucks’: LIV pro Louis Oosthuizen complains about Presidents Cup ban appeared first on Golf.

Next week, the 14th edition of the Presidents Cup kicks off at storied Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina. But several big-name players won’t be there, all thanks to the rise of LIV Golf.

The biennial competition pits a 12-player team of the top American pros against an International squad. Unlike the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup is closely tied to the PGA Tour, which is a problem for players who have made the jump to LIV.

News

Back in June, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent a letter to Tour members declaring that players who chose to join LIV Golf were banned from competing in all PGA Tour, Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Champions, Canada, and Latinoamerica tour events, as well as the Presidents Cup.

At the LIV Golf event in Chicago this week, former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, who represented the International team at the last four Presidents Cups, said in an interview with SI.com that fellow LIV pros “would love to be able to play” at Quail Hollow, and the fact that they’ve been banned is “a bit of a stinger.”

“There’s a lot of pangs about missing next week,” Oosthuizen said. “… It just sucks that I can’t be around to try and do anything for the team.”

Oosthuizen was among the earliest waves of players to resign his Tour membership and join LIV Golf, a fact that he had hoped would shield him from any punishments from the Tour, such as a Presidents Cup ban, a point he contested in Chicago.

“There’s no rule that says I need to be a PGA Tour member to play the Presidents Cup, especially as an International team player,” Oosthuizen explained. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong. I made my decision where I am playing golf. But I didn’t do anything wrong while I was a PGA Tour member”

Oosthuizen later revealed that he worries most about the negative effect on fellow South African and International team captain Trevor Immleman, who was forced to craft a roster without the likes of Oosthuizen and other top International pros.

“I feel the most bad for Trev. Trevor’s a good friend. We text each other. He knew my decision beforehand. But still, it sucks,” Oosthuizen shared in Chicago. “I wanted to play for him. He’s going to be a great captain.”

The International team isn’t alone in missing talented players next week. The U.S. team will be without LIV pros Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.

The 2022 Presidents Cup officially gets underway next Thursday, September 22. You can check out the full International roster here and the American team here.

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The post Louis Oosthuizen reveals how he won at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

The post Louis Oosthuizen reveals how he won at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

From the Southern Hills locker room, Sunday at the 2022 PGA Championship. This interview appeared in the July/August issue of GOLF.

Dylan Dethier: We’re coming up on 12 years since your Open Championship win at St. Andrews. When you think back, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

Louis Oosthuizen: I think it’s moments from the full week. The town felt so much different from just a normal Dunhill [European Tour event]. The whole place just has an energy, and the whole town has an incredible vibe to it. If you’re a golf guy and enjoy playing golf and love the history, it has to be on your bucket list to come play St. Andrews and go through the town. It’s just great.

Are there places in town where you’ve spent time? Somewhere you like to eat or drink?

Not specifically. I just like walking around town, then stopping at a coffee shop, stopping to have a pint at a bar, stuff like that. Before we had our kids, we’d do that. It’s just such a nice town. You don’t really need a car. You can just walk around and everything is right there.

Instruction

Have you always liked playing links golf?

Yeah. Well, what I grew up with was wind golf. I didn’t really start playing links golf for a while. I played on the coast of South Africa, where it’s windy but it’s not links golf. So I was used to playing in wind. And then going over to Europe, I played a lot more links golf and just loved it. I loved all the shotmaking, and it was good fun.

Why do you think you played so well that week in 2010?

If you can drive it well and take on a few tough lines off the tee, that makes the Old Course a lot easier. And I was just driving the golf ball so good that week. Lengthwise, I was quite a bit longer then than now, too, and it just suited my eye.

Is that the key to that golf course — hitting your spots off the tee?

I think so. And I think it favors a cut. With a cut, you can set up better angles for your second shots. I think if you draw the golf ball, those angles get tougher. So I was hitting cuts the whole week, aiming it down the middle of the fairway — there’s normally two fairways together — and I was just sliding it right off that line. It worked out nicely for me.

During the final round, it seemed like your competitors, one by one, got themselves in trouble. And you never did. Is that how you remember it?

Yeah, it was tight up until the 12th hole. I think I was three shots ahead, but that still felt very tight because on that back nine you can lose three shots very quickly. And then, obviously, Paul [Casey] had an errant tee shot on 12 [en route to triple bogey], and I made birdie, which made the lead seven or eight, I think.

You’ve contended in majors so often. What got you across the finish line in this one?

It’s funny, I wasn’t playing that great going into the week. It’s just that everything I was working on came together. I played really well, and I got lucky with the side of the draw as well. On Friday morning when I played, it was rainy and it wasn’t great conditions, but then that wind picked up and blew the whole field away in the afternoon. So I got really lucky with that. And that’s what you need to win. Somewhere along the line you need to get a lucky draw or a lucky bounce or something. I think that draw was a big part of having a lead going into the weekend.

Do you remember feeling particularly nervous at any point or feeling the extra pressure of sleeping on the lead?

No, I really never did. I had my wife and little baby with me, and I just wasn’t really thinking about it. I was too dumb to think about it and too young to realize the situation, and I never really thought that I was going to pull it off. So I was just playing. I just got in my routine, did my stuff, enjoyed playing, and I never really thought, Man, I could win a major. It obviously hit me eventually — when I had a seven-shot lead playing the last five holes. Then I had to collect myself. I wanted to try to make birdies, not just to be defensive. Because then it was mine to lose. That was a different pressure. Those last holes were the hardest, in some ways.

Catch people up. Where do you live and how do you spend your time when we’re not seeing you on Tour?

I live in Ocala, Florida. And oh, I’ve got lots to do when I’m not playing golf. We’ve got a horse ranch and roosters and kids riding horses and all kinds of things. So I keep myself very busy. But I still play lots of social golf. I practice a bit, and I still enjoy my golf quite a lot. Golden Ocala is my club there. I enjoy the social side of golf now a lot more than I used to. And I’m definitely getting to the stage where playing less tournament golf is going to be part of the plan.

What brought you to Ocala in the first place?

Instruction

Oh, it was the farm. We saw this farm, and it was friends of ours that were selling it, and we fell in love with the massive oak trees. Some of the trees on the farm are 300 years old. Me and my wife both grew up on farms, and we always wanted to have a piece of land over here. And this was the perfect size, and it made sense. So we saw it and bought it, and then we moved up there.

Do you see it as an escape from the busyness of life on Tour?

Oh, yeah. When I get there — I mean, I’m not on any social media and stuff myself. When I get there, I don’t even need to have a phone. So it’s great. It’s a good thing away from golf.

I’ve heard you’re fond of the tractor.

Oh, yeah.

What do you do on the tractor?

Whatever I have to do — mowing grass and doing all kinds of things. It’s good to be on the tractor.

The post Louis Oosthuizen reveals how he won at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

The post The clubs LIV golfer Louis Oosthuizen used to win the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

The post The clubs LIV golfer Louis Oosthuizen used to win the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

Winning the Open Championship is a feat to be celebrated. Winning it by seven shots on the Old Course at St. Andrews is beyond impressive. Well that’s exactly what Louis Oosthuizen did in 2010, and you might be surprised by some of the clubs he had in his bag.

Driver

Ping Rapture V2 (9°) with a Project X X6B7 shaft

The Ping Rapture V2 followed in the footsteps of the original Ping Rapture driver — which to this day remains the only driver Ping has ever built with a carbon composite crown. The V2 went back to a titanium construction and was a dramatic shift in geometry with a flowing crown and flat sole that placed tungsten weights at the extreme rear of the club to boost MOI while lowering spin.

The Rapture line marked the first time Ping offered a full line of competing “premium” products under a different name in the marketplace against the traditional “G” and “i” lines at a higher price point. The Rapture line was followed by a full line of Anser clubs in 2012, and one of those hybrids was used by Phil Mickelson when he won his Open Championship in 2013.

Fairway Woods 

Nike SQ Sumo 3-wood (13°) and 5-wood (19°) with Project X X6B7 shafts

If there were ever clubs that would stand out like a sore thumb it would be Nike fairway woods in a Ping staffers golf bag. No offense to Nike, but beyond staff players including Scottie Scheffler — who just recently replaced his old Nike VR 3 wood, there weren’t many golfers in this era using any Nike clubs without a contract. 

The other standout element of Louis fairway woods is the fact that he used the same weight shafts in his 3 and 5-wood as he did in his driver — the original Project X Series X6B7. This is not a common way to build fairway woods since most players will use a shaft that weighs 10-20 grams heavier compared to the driver.

Irons

Ping S56, (3-9-iron) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts

The Ping S series irons marked a dramatic shift in design philosophy for a company that never really pushed the envelope into the blade-like iron category. The original model was the S59 released in 2007, followed by the S58, S57, and eventually the S56 used by Louis. 

Even with their smaller shape they still offered a relatively high MOI thanks to a tungsten weight positioned in the low toe of the club — just like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the Ping engineers “find a way”.

Wedges

Ping Tour S Rustique: 47°, 54° & 60° with True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts

For Ping, this era marked a lot of firsts for the company, with another making its way into the bag of the eventual Open Championship winner — rusty wedges. After enough consumer and tour player demand, when the Tour S wedges were released they were offered in both a chrome and oil-can type finish that would intentionally wear and rust over time. 

Ping has since moved on from raw wedges completely in favor of there hydropearl chrome which helps increase friction and maintain spin in wet conditions.

Putter

Ping Redwood Anser – Long Neck Prototype

To offer some background for those that don’t possess the sometimes crippling amount of nerdy equipment knowledge that roams around in my brain, the Redwood series was the first time Ping offered a one-piece milled stainless steel putter to the general consumer. Think of the Redwod putters at the grandaddy to the modern PLD series. 

Louis’ putter was a prototype long plumbers neck verion of the Redwood Anser, which helped make the head more face balanced and it was never released to the public. 

Before the Redwood, Ping offered a milled titanium and tungsten putter line in 2002 called the JAS but the hefty price tag of close to $500 created by the manufacturing processes and materials it never became a mainstream success.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

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The post Fully Equipped: Pros are adding this club to attack par 5s at the Masters appeared first on Golf.

Augusta National’s longest holes are getting longer in 2022, and big hitters are adding a secret weapon to succeed on scoring holes.

GOLF’s Jonathan Wall and Luke Kerr-Dineen explain the importance of high-lofted fairway woods from the Savannah River Brewing Co.

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The post Not doing this on your backswing could be causing a common golf swing flaw appeared first on Golf.

The post Not doing this on your backswing could be causing a common golf swing flaw appeared first on Golf.

By now you’ve probably heard of early extension. If you haven’t, it’s a move that plagues the ranks of recreational golfers — and even many pro golfers — all across golf. Early extension is when your hips, on the downswing, move towards the golf ball, like you see me demonstrating in illustration form below.

Early extension is a divisive issue in golf. There are teachers who say it’s no cause for concern, and others who disagree. But if you’re an early extender and find it doesn’t work for you, the fix may be more straightforward than you think.

Loading your trail hip

At the GOLF Top 100 Teachers Summit late last year (which InsideGOLF subscribers can watch exclusively right here), Louis Oosthuizen’s trainer Marnus Marais, speaking alongside Louis’ swing coach and GOLF Top 100 Teacher Justin Parsons, explained one of the most common causes of early extension:

“There’s a tendency of golfers in general, and even the best guys we work with, that if they struggle to load their hips correctly on the backswing, and their right hip especially, it’s an uphill battle from there, ” Marais said. “Early extension is a natural occurrence from there.”

Early extension is an issue Oosthuizen struggles with, the pair explained, and it’s something the pair work on to improve in Louis’ swing.

“We work hard on loading into the right hip,” Parsons says.

But while turning into and loading the right hip on the backswing is a good swing thought to avoid early extension, being able to do that effectively requires improving your hip mobility and flexibility.

“One of the things I check religiously with my players is their hip alignment,” Marais says. “Human beings tend to have their hips tilt forward, which can limit their ability to load [their hips] on the backswing.”

Load into the right hip, and you create space for your hips to turn through, rather that thrust towards the ball, on the downswing.

You can watch the full video on InsideGOLF right here.

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The post This major winner’s gameday diet inadvertently added a stroke to his game appeared first on Golf.

The post This major winner’s gameday diet inadvertently added a stroke to his game appeared first on Golf.

Some of the very best golf teachers on the planet are at Pinehurst Resort this week for GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit. You can access all of their insight by signing up for the livestream. But lucky you, we’ll also break down some of what you missed right here. (For more on the Top 100 Teachers Summit, click here.)

It was easy enough to discern that something was very, very off with Louis Oosthuizen. Slightly harder was figuring out what that thing was. For months, the former major winner had dealt with a maddening stretch of inconsistency, and yet nobody was quite sure why.

After diving into the data, Oosthuizen’s coach, Justin Parsons, and physiotherapist, Marnus Marais, noticed a concerning trend. In the morning, the 39-year-old’s scores were nearly a full stroke better than in the afternoon. Sure, some of that could be due to course conditions, which are generally easier in the morning than in the afternoon, but the data set was large enough to suggest there was something else at play. Even more concerning: the data seemed to suggest that the closer to contention Oosthuizen was on the weekend, the worse he’d perform — with a particular weakness appearing on the back nine.

“On the back nine, there’s a change,” Marais said at GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit Monday. “There’s a change in focus and a change in shot execution. It just doesn’t make sense what’s happening in the middle of the back nine versus the end of the back nine.”

Parsons and Marais soon began theorizing how the time of day was affecting Oosthuizen’s game so significantly. Soon, Marais and Parsons remembered one of their client’s most particular idiosyncrasies: his diet.

Fitness

“I noticed that Louis was a shot worse from an A.M. point to a P.M. point,” Parsons said. “He doesn’t like to eat. He’s never liked to eat during the course of play. So for a morning round, he has breakfast, and then he’s ready to play and pretty much fueled for the day. In the afternoon, he has breakfast, and then he normally starts warming up around midday or whatever. So we just saw this big decline and this big dump whenever he plays, so I said to Marnus, we’ve got to do something about this.”

Marais began researching the best course of action for Oosthuizen, who was steadfast in his reproach for mid-round snacking, and stumbled upon a unique solution.

“After working with Louis, I know he doesn’t like to eat. We always try to meet players where they are. So trying to convince Louis that he had to eat a PB&J or a turkey sandwich or whatever on the course is not a battle I am willing to take on,” Marais said. “So I just suggested, let’s just try this amino acid drink, which we can easily mix in with his hydration.”

As Marais explained, an amino acid drink would provide many of the same energy-boosting benefits of consuming food on the golf course without, y’know, actually consuming food.

“So I explained to him what was happening and I explained to him what could be the reasoning for his inconsistency down the back nine. I explained to him that the amino acids are a protein broken down and they’re easily assimilated by the body. And let’s just try this, let’s just take this drink at the turn and see what happens.”

Oosthuizen was initially hesitant, but eventually relented. Almost immediately, the results were obvious: in 2021, Oosthuizen had one of the best (and most consistent) seasons of his professional career.

“It made a significant difference, I think,” Marais said. “Everybody on his team, we all saw significant improvement from him taking that.”

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The post These are the 6 keys to Louis Oosthuizen’s smooth swing appeared first on Golf.

The post These are the 6 keys to Louis Oosthuizen’s smooth swing appeared first on Golf.

I first started working with Louis Oosthuizen back in 2018. At the time, I was helping his friend and fellow South African Charl Schwartzel. Louis was struggling a bit with his game and asked me to review some video for him. After sending him a few notes, he liked what I had to say about his swing and it translated into a top-10 finish at the Colonial. We formalized our relationship at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock, which kicked off what has been a great coach-player relationship. 

A lot of people say Louis has the smoothest swing in golf, and it makes me feel slightly embarrassed. But I do think it’s true. Make no mistake, though, it is Louis’ swing. I’m so impressed with his level of awareness — a high-level grasp of his swing and how to play a course or a particular shot. He’s already kind of made up his mind on how to play a shot before even facing it. That takes a certain level of acuity that a lot of people don’t have, and it’s amplified when he plays in majors. 

Louis likes to keep his swing simple; he works hard at maintaining his rhythm and balance and is deeply aware of his relationship to the target and his posture. When these fundamentals are in place, his swing is, indeed, the smoothest in the game. 

Take a look at the sequence below to see how Oosthuizen creates an effortless swing. Again, the keys are focus, balance and alignment.

1. Address

Louis likes to sit into his heels and get very close to the ball. This allows him to avoid getting his hands too low. It also forces him to stay in posture.

2. Takeaway

His takeaway reflects the quality of his overall swing. Check out how the toe of the club is just forward of vertical with the clubhead in line with his hands. Copy this!

3. Top position

There’s a lot to like here. Louis has a beautiful “softness” through his arms and shoulders. This allows him to make a free, full and easy upper-body arm swing. Important: Despite the full turn, his lower body is firmly settled into the ground.

4. Downswing

Louis is very agile through the ball. He does some very interesting things with his elbows and shoulders that create an extremely “heavy” hit on the ball without overswinging. This, combined with very fast hips, creates a strong release.

5. Impact

This is what great players do: blend fabulous rhythm, fantastic timing and unbelievable sequencing at the bottom of the swing. When you coordinate these things in a fluid way, you look like Louis: smooth and powerful.

6. Release

Louis refers to this as “releasing down the left without the face closing,” and he does an incredible job at it. There’s simply no “flipping.” Having the confidence to release the club like this without fear of the ball going left is a game changer.

Want to overhaul your bag for next year? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

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The post 1 thing you shouldn’t think about over the ball, according to Louis Oosthuizen appeared first on Golf.

The post 1 thing you shouldn’t think about over the ball, according to Louis Oosthuizen appeared first on Golf.

Golf is just as much a mental game as it is a physical one. As Bobby Jones famously said, “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course … the space between your ears.” Oh, how that statement rings true.

It’s part of the allure of the game, but it’s also one of the most frustrating elements. Managing your emotions is one of the biggest thrills in golf, and it’s also one of the most difficult.

Even the best in the world must find a way to manage their mind on the course. Often the biggest separator between PGA Tour-caliber players and mini tour players is simply the ability to win the mental game. Everyone can make birdies, but it’s far more difficult to make birdies and keep your composure all the time.

Instruction

And most elite golfers will tell you the method for keeping their emotions in check is to keep a strict routine on the course. Treat every shot the same, and never let up on your focus. Stick to the routine.

Louis Oosthuizen was blunt when asked at the BMW Championship about his mental preparations for every shot. What is it that goes through his mind just before he initiates the swing?

“Don’t hit it in the trouble,” he laughed. “That’s my first one.”

If only it were that simple.

Oosthuizen went on to explain that when he stands over the ball, he’s always trying to visualize the specifics of what he wants to do with the shot — where to start it, where to finish, shape, trajectory, spin, etc.

“It’s always with the intention of hitting the best shot possible,” he said.

Then, it’s all in the execution.

“Stand there, make a good swing, take the shot and hit your shot,” he said. “Never think a negative thought of what not to do; that’s the last thing you want to think of.”

Does your bag need an overhaul? Visit the expert fitters at our affiliate company, True Spec Golf.

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On Sunday at the Open Championship, as Collin Morikawa began to separate himself from the field, I wondered for a moment if Louis Oosthuizen would rather come in third than second, thus avoiding the agony of another runner-up finish.

It was mostly a silly thought and the thought of someone who thinks and writes about this sort of thing far too often. To Oosthuizen, the only added “agony” of a runner-up would be some extra questions about winning and the heartbreak of a near-miss. He’d get those anyway. But in a golf tournament, we too often forget that second place is preferable to every other position except first. And it pays accordingly. Oosthuizen could buy several new tractors with the paycheck difference between second and third.

Louis Oosthuizen is not a choke artist. Let’s start there, to get it out of the way. He began Sunday’s finale at the Open Championship with a one-stroke lead, he played lackluster golf and he did not win the tournament. He has done similar things before. But he did finish T3, marking another spectacular major showing from the 38-year-old. The fact that his Sunday showing is considered a failure is another reminder that we’re not very good at thinking about this sort of thing. It should be a reminder that we can celebrate his terrific showings while still wondering what might have been.

News

At the last three major championships, this is the list of players who have beaten Louis Oosthuizen:

Phil Mickelson
Jon Rahm
Collin Morikawa
Jordan Spieth

Not a shabby list. While we’re at it, here are the male golfers under the age of 50 who have more runner-up finishes at majors than Oosthuizen:

Tiger Woods

That’s it. That’s the list. Woods has seven runner-up finishes. Oosthuizen has six. After Sunday’s T3, he has two bronze medals to go with the six silvers. But in professional golf, we keep track of winners. With the exception of Tokyo in a couple weeks, we don’t do medals. (We do do money, every week.) And so the King Louis-as-bridesmaid narrative continues, accurate but underappreciative.

Oosthuizen remains a joy to watch on golf’s biggest stages. While his short game has become his calling card of late, newcomers to the Oosty Show typically fall in love with his swing first. Paul Azinger called it syrupy. David Feherty described it as “like watching a door opening and closing.” What they’re getting at is the fact that a man who might challenge 5-foot-10 can move a club so efficiently that he can pound drives with a shockingly simple move.

His effortless power used to propel Oosthuizen higher on the long-drive charts. In 2015 he ranked 31st on Tour in driving distance — but 146th in Strokes Gained: Putting. This season he’s down to 94th in driving distance, but entered the week leading the Tour in SG: Putting and 10th around the greens. He has evolved to short-game wizard. His renaissance has been special to watch.

On this particular Sunday, Oosthuizen’s swing looked solid. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens. But his misses were roundly punished and he couldn’t match the effortless scoring of his first two days nor the stripe-show put on by Morikawa, his playing partner.

It was no shock Oosthuizen didn’t come out of the gates hot; the first six holes are a tough stretch where he’d made just one birdie through three rounds. When he made bogey to Morikawa’s par at No. 4, the lead was tied. No problem — game on.

But Oosthuizen’s bogey at 7, a par-5 that the rest of the field was eating alive, marked a huge blow to his chances. One pairing ahead, Spieth and Corey Conners both made eagle. In his own group, Morikawa made birdie. Then Morikawa birdied the next, too. The gap was suddenly three.

Oosthuizen didn’t go away. He issued a reminder of his deadliness with a golf club at No. 11, a 253-yard par-3, where he striped an iron directly at the flag. So directly, in fact, that it hit the pin, glanced off to a few feet and set up his first birdie of the day. It wouldn’t be enough.

After his win, Morikawa took a moment to gush about Oosthuizen’s game and his general way of being.

“Louis is an outright amazing player and person. I hope I get more pairings with him because he’s just a great guy to play with,” he said. “Just everything about his tempo. It’s nice to see another guy just stripe it down the middle. I mean, when I watch him play and hit his drives, I’m like, ‘Wow, I want to hit it like that.’

“Yeah, Louis is consistent, he really is. He’s going to keep knocking at these doors, and I’m sure he’s going to knock a few more down. He’s just too good.”

Let’s review Oosthuizen’s quote-unquote “losses” at the last three majors of the year. The first came at the hands of Phil Mickelson, an all-time great who cashed in his Destiny Coupon for a week at the PGA Championship. The next came when Jon Rahm, the world’s best golfer, needed to make bombs on each of the last two holes of the U.S. Open to edge him out. And the third came on Sunday, when a generational irons player with a newfound putting stroke and a resurgent Jordan Spieth took the top two spots on the podium. Sometimes you just get beat.

“Another second place, you know, I’ve got to take it,” he said after the PGA. “But I feel like I could have probably get two or three more shots out of my game.”

“I’m second again. No, look, it’s frustrating. It’s disappointing,” he said after the U.S. Open. “I played good today, but I didn’t play good enough.”

On Sunday at The Open, Oosthuizen didn’t speak to the media after his round. He sent out a tweet, congratulating Morikawa and poking fun at another near-miss. Sometimes there’s just not much more to say, anyway.

It’s natural to wonder when players come this close how it might affect them when they leave the course. Oosthuizen’s heartbreak is no media invention; he’s acknowledged himself just how badly he wants another major win. But he also seems almost uniquely situated to deal with the near-misses. His farm in Ocala, Fla., seems like an oasis. When he’s on the road in the States, he stays in the same RV every week. He exists in a bunker of stability and simple comfort. And after a disappointing result, he can truly get away.

“I just spend time on the farm with the family, with the kids, and just get my head away from golf completely,” he said after his opening round. Oosthuizen’s happy place is with his family — and his toys.

“I’m always on the tractor, don’t worry,” he added, glint in his eye. “I don’t need to play good or bad to be on the tractor.”

If Oosthuizen hasn’t found the secret code to closing out golf tournaments, he seems to take solace in the fact that he has everything else pretty well handled.

When Spieth finishes second, as he did on Sunday, there’s perhaps more fanfare but less long-term concern that he’s missed an opportunity. Partly that’s a function of age; Spieth is 27 while Oosthuizen is 38. But it’s also because Oosthuizen still somehow keeps sneaking up on us at majors. His performances can feel like statistical anomalies; he’s a strong player in other events but he’s not this good. Even the folks in Las Vegas price Oosthuizen like they expect an inevitable regression to the mean. How can he keep playing like the best golfer in the world only when the pressure is highest? So we feel for him, both because his misses are so near and because future chances seem less guaranteed.

But if there’s anything to be learned from King Louis perhaps we should learn it from the man himself. On Saturday, pressed on his laid-back demeanor, a reporter asked if there is anything that gets him worked up. He cited a pull-hook 5-iron he’d hit just 45 minutes before. “It was the wrong club. It was the wrong choice I made, and I hate making wrong decisions,” he said. How ’bout other stuff, off the course? Waiting in traffic?

“Everyone gets worked up on stuff like that. I mean, little things. Just chill.”

In other words, don’t worry about Louis Oosthuizen. He’s doing just fine, thanks. He’s controlling what he can. And he’ll be back.

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The post Collin Morikawa pairs precision with poise to win 149th Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

How was your Sunday? Maybe you were one of the 30,000 there, at Royal St. George’s. (Lucky you.) More likely, and like us, RSG came to you through TV magic. Coastal England, funny-bounce golf, for evil and for good. The breeze down, the sun out. Greens as slow as your shower mat. Ye olde jug, etched with all those famous names, waiting for someone to come on home. Blokes you could root for, up and down the yellow board.

How you like me now?

Yes, a win at the Masters gets you in the club forever, and that’s neat. Yes, the U.S. Open, at least by tradition, is the most demanding of the golf’s Grand Slam events. But the British Open, the Open Championship — The Open! — percolates grandeur. No matter the weather, the venue, the leaderboard.

Jordo.

Kid Collin.

King Louie.

Jordan Spieth was in the penultimate twosome. After the missed shorty at the end of his Saturday, a l-o-n-g wait, to “on the tee, from the U.S.A.” and his 2:25 p.m. start. Then the final twosome 10 minutes later: Collin Morikawa, two shots ahead of Spieth, and Louis Oosthuizen, your 54-hole leader, a shot ahead of Morikawa.

Oosthuizen, the Sunday morning leader last month at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, was looking for his first major-tour win since his seven-shot victory at the 2010 Open at St. Andrews. Yes, no matter how many times you say it, it doesn’t seem possible.

Morikawa won last year’s PGA Championship at Harding Park, his first Grand Slam win. He’s 24. And if he could win a second major at that age? He’d be in another conversation — he’d be living life, at least his public, professional life, at another level.

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As for Spieth — we know you were rooting for him. His root-for-me numbers are off-the-charts. Four long years ago, he was on the mountaintop. Sunday, July 23, 2017: the memorable day when he won the Open from Royal Birkdale’s dunes. It was his third Grand Slam title, along with a Masters and a U.S. Open. And then he slid on down, talking all the while. The champ became the underdog.

But that’s not why we were pulling for him on Sunday. You were rooting for him as you might have rooted for Phil Mickelson or Arnold Palmer, because he, like them, looks like he has no real plan. And we can relate. Most of us have no idea what we’re doing.

OK, on the basis of those bio blurbs, the winner all-along had to be —

Before we get there, one necessary observation from the BarcaLounger:

Tiger, in his prime, would have won this 149th Open by a field goal, if not more. Nicklaus, in his, would have won by one — because he had to contend with Tom Watson and Lee Trevino and others who knew how to hit some club in play off the tee, how to hit an iron hole high, how to hit a lag putt firmly enough to get it to the hole. 

That formula sponsored by LinksGolf, your source for this-is-how-we-do-it golf since 1860 (Willie Park over Old Tom by two).

Yes, easy to recite the recipe from the easy chair. As Padraig Harrington, two-time winner of this great event, says, “We’d all be much better players if we were able to talk about our golf rather than play it.” Chat’s cheap. A bunker shot over a wall of laminated slabs of sod takes talent, practice, effort, athleticism, trust, mechanics, intelligence. Sounds like a certain 2019 Cal grad, doesn’t it?

Still, this really should have been a Sunday owned by Oosthuizen, with his classic fairways-and-greens swing. At the end of the day, though, that’s not enough. At a major, you have to get your thinking game around both the mechanical problems golf presents, from start to finish, and the mental ones, too. Nicklaus and Woods owned both categories. And by half-seven Sunday night, British Summer Time, Collin Morikawa showed that he has those qualities, too.

He was playing in his first Open. He said upon arrival, in a Golf Channel interview and not in any way bragging, that he was there to win. Spieth came home in 32, and put heat on Morikawa all through the back nine. Morikawa hit it on the face, with every club, from his best club (driver) to his least good (putter). He didn’t need to do anything exceptional, so he didn’t. Paging Tiger.

It’s hard not to page Tiger, right here, right now. Morikawa has played in eight majors and has won two of them. Next month, he’ll play in the Olympics, in Japan, the country of his ancestors, representing the United States, the country of his birth. In September, he’ll represent the United States at the Ryder Cup. He’s doing the thing he wants to do. He’s playing professional golf. He’ll seek to get better and maybe he will. But he’s not going to reinvent the wheel to do it. He’s too smart for that.

The victory remarks, as the Champion Golfer of the year, like Willie Park and Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods before him, were a study in maturity. The nods to the spectators. To Matthias Schmid of Germany, the tournament’s low amateur. To the R&A staff, and the RSG staff. To his birthday-boy caddie, to his fellow pros, to his parents and brother and girlfriend. He’s 24. You almost can’t believe it. Jordan Spieth is 27 and you can.

Some of you will remember Tiger in his 20s. This guy is something like Tiger and nothing like Tiger. Morikawa is a smart, collected, athletic son of California. He’s not as strong as Tiger. He doesn’t have Tiger’s putting game. (Nobody, really, ever has.) He doesn’t seem to have Tiger’s smoldering intensity, or Tiger’s OCD tendencies for playing golf and practicing golf. He speaks of his internal life with an ease Tiger never could.

But he doesn’t live his life under a microscope. He and Spieth were picked up on a hot mic at the Players, talking the way kids do, and the moment came and went. Nothing Tiger ever does goes away. As Morikawa said at the trophy presentation, “I feel the love.” It seemed so simple, the way he said it, what he meant by it. What a gift that is, that feeling. He’s not playing golf looking for it. He’s playing golf because he loves it. It’s so obvious. He’s quiet, cool — a calm kid. But you were watching, wherever you were. You saw it. His inner-life was pulsating.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

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