D6 SALLY JENKINS
His name’s unusual, but we all may know it soon
jenkins from D1
the second straight day. “I mean, no one can even say my surname.” Here’s how outwardly unpersuasive Oosthuizen is as a champion: In March, after he won the first European tour event of his career at the Open de Andalucia in Spain, he took his trophy with him to Malaga Airport and tried to carry it onboard a Monarch Airlines flight. Security declared it “a dangerous object” and made him leave it behind. Nevertheless, there is
something in Oosthuizen’s demeanor here that suggests he could be a tough leader to crack. Up close he’s got a burly build and a tough jaw, one that he could shave three times a day and it would still show dark stubble. He looks durable, and hungry. He’s the son of a farmer, for whom nothing has come very easily — his parents couldn’t afford to pay his travel expenses, and he was fortunate to have the financial backing of countryman Ernie Els’s youth foundation from the age of 17 until he went pro. He’s a practiced all-weather player who grew up on wind-whipped Mossel Bay, South Africa, and he has handled everything St. Andrews can dish out, including pressure, unpredictable gusts, and a bee sting on his forearm during a practice round last weekend. “I’m swinging it really
nicely,” he said. “I was happy with the way I managed myself.”
But there is nothing hardscrabble about Oosthuizen’s swing. In the past year he’s become a more accomplished player than casual golf fans may realize: He’s ranked 54th in the world this season, with seven top-20 finishes. He’s got a sweetly compact motion that, at least so far, has been as reliable as a metronome. There’s a stillness in his form that suggests the swing will hold up under pressure: There aren’t a lot of parts to it, and nothing moves unless he commands it to. If galleries aren’t fully cognizant of how good he is yet, insiders are, and so are his fellow players. You don’t shoot three rounds of 69 or better and hold a multiple-stroke lead in the British Open at St Andrews for two consecutive days if you don’t have some serious stroke. “He’s a good ball striker,”
Mickelson said. “He can really play. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he were to play a good solid week and win.” But his attitude has been as
important as his aptitude. More than anything, Oosthuizen has an unselfconsciousness that is serving him well as the stakes
S
KLMNO GOLF
BRITISH OPEN NOTEBOOK Woods still struggling with putter by Barry Svrluga
st. andrews, scotland —If Tiger Woods is to become the first man to win three British Opens at St. Andrews, several things will have to happen. The leaders will have to stall and even stumble. He will have to continue to strike the ball well, as he has for much of this week. But the most un- likely occurrence: Woods’s putter will have to wake up. “I certainly have had a lot more
putts on the greens than I ever have,” Woods said, “and that’s something that has basically kept me out of being in the final few groups.” Woods’s 1-over-par 73 in Satur-
PETER MORRISON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Louis Oosthuizen is ranked 54th in the world, but he’ll be in new territory Sunday.
mount. When his abysmal previous record in major championships, missing seven of eight cuts, was pointed out, he just grinned. “It wasn’t very great, was it?” he said. “It was amatter of not believing in myself, I think.” But asked if he is surprised to find himself in this position, he said frankly, “Not really.”
Which is not to say Oosthuizen is impervious to pressure: When he bogeyed the opening hole Saturday with a shaky three-putt, “a bit of nerves,” he admitted, a collapse seemed inevitable, if not imminent. But he steadied himself with five straight pars, and as his round got progressively more confident, he had perhaps the most relaxed body language of any of the leaders on the course. He will need all the
looseness he can muster in the final round, because he will be paired with native son Casey, and viewed as the spoiler by the galleries. “I’ll get one or two claps, I hope,” he said. There are all kinds of precedents to suggest Oosthuizen probably can’t win. Remember, just a month ago Dustin Johnson was swinging the club like an angel and had a three-shot lead going into the final round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. It was gone by the time he reached the fourth tee. On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons to think Oosthuizen can do it. No one else in the top seven on this leader board has ever won a major, either. There have been unheralded leaders before, but few with such an pretty swing and unflappable disposition.
jenkinss@washpost.com
day’s third round left him at 3 un- der for the tournament, 12 off the pace set by South African Louis Oosthuizen and tied for 18th place. After switching putters for the first time in 11 years for this tournament — selecting a Nike model that, he said, allows the ball to come off the clubface more quickly, which he felt would be better suited for St. Andrews’s slower greens. But after needing 32 putts in each of the first two rounds, he took 35 Saturday. Woods missed makeable birdie putts at the first three holes. “If those go in, it’s a whole dif- ferent ballgame,” Woods said. “That’s what the guys are doing at the top of the board. They get off to quick starts.” Woods also finished slowly, three-putting 13, 14 and 18 — af- ter he drove the green — when a good score might have been in reach.
“I just didn’t get anything out of the round,” Woods said. “I couldn’t build any momentum.”
Marino survives scare
Steve Marino finished his 3- under 69 Saturday in most inter- esting fashion. At the 17th, the famed Road Hole, he wanted to keep his 4-iron approach low, be- low the breeze, and run it onto the green. But he hooked it — di- rectly toward the Road Hole bun- ker, the deep, greenside cavern that is perhaps the worst place to be on the course. “It looked like it ‘toilet-bowled’ around there,” Marino said. That it did, spinning as if in a pinball machine around the sod- ded sides of the bunker, then coming all the way around to sit in front of it. Marino barely failed to get up-and-down from there for his only bogey of the day, and stepped to the 18th tee with one thought. “I was trying to hit it hard and
get it up there on the green,” Ma- rino said. And that he did, driving the 357-yard par 4. He barely missed the 20-foot putt for eagle, tapped in for birdie and settled for his second 69 in three days to get to 2-under for the tourna- ment. “I’m playing okay,” Marino
said. “I’m not playing great. Obvi- ously yesterday was a struggle, but everybody struggled. I left
SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
JON SUPER/ASSOCIATED PRESS Tiger Woods reacts to a missed putt at St. Andrews on Saturday, one of 35 he needed to shoot a 1-over 73.
some shots out there today, and missed some putts, but I’m here tomorrow. . . . Any time you can make the cut in a major, you learn something.” Marino, a Fairfax native and
University of Virginia alum, has now made the cut in all three ma- jors this year, tying for 14th at his first Masters and for 63rd at the U.S. Open.
Lefty left ‘disappointed’
Phil Mickelson had played the British Open 16 times before this
week and had just one top-10 fin- ish — third in 2004 at Royal Troon. He has some work to do if he’s going to get a second one, mostly because of two holes. “I’m disappointed in myself,”
Mickelson said. The reason: A double bogey at 16, where he arrived 4 under for the tournament, and a bogey at 17. At 16, he hit 5-iron off the tee — and hooked it out-of-bounds, leading to the double. “I let a good round slide,” he said. “I let a good opportunity to
get back into the tournament, somewhat, to where a good round [Sunday] could maybe get it done, and I let it go.” . . . Mark Calcavecchia, who entered the third round trailing only Oos- thuizen, slipped away when he made a 9 at the fifth hole, a dis- aster that involved him mistak- enly picking up a provisional shot he hit because he thought a way- ward shot into gorse had been lo- cated. That wasn’t the case, and Calcavecchia went on to shoot 77.
svrlugab@washpost.com
Oosthuizen holds four-shot lead after three rounds at St. Andrews british open from D1
65, the leader after a favorable tee time helped him to a second- round 67, and clearly the tourna- ment’s best player after his third- round 69 left him at 15-under 201, four shots clear of the field. “It’s great being up there,” Oos- thuizen said. “I just want to enjoy everything about it. I loved it out there. It was great fun for me, and hopefully tomorrow will be the same.”
But how could he know? He’s
never been there. His advantage is over England’s Paul Casey, an accomplished international play- er who was once No. 3 in the world, but has never finished among the top five in a major. Three more strokes back, at 8- under 208, is Martin Kaymer, a German who was leading the race for the European Tour’s Order of Merit a year ago when he injured himself in a go-kart accident. An- other shot back of Kaymer are Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who was third in the 2008 Open at Royal Birkdale; Spain’s Alejandro Canizares, playing in his first ma- jor anywhere; and England’s Lee Westwood, the third-ranked play- er in the world. Throw in a token American, Dustin Johnson, at 6-under 210, and the top seven players headed into the final round of the British Open are a combined 0 for 116 in majors. That includes, of course, Johnson’s experience at this year’s U.S. Open, when he took a three-shot lead into Sunday, and imploded with an 82. “It was just one of those funny
days in golf,” Johnson said. “We all have them. . . . You can learn
iron in the middle of the 16th fair- way — he stepped up and drained a 50-footer for birdie. He then played his approach at the 17th from a difficult lie onto the 18th tee box, putted it from there — and saved par. Given that kind of hold-it-to-
gether performance, why change? “Tomorrow, I’m probably going to do pretty much the same,” he said. “Just go out there, hit shot for shot, and never get ahead of yourself.”
Only one player in the 27 Opens
at the Old Course has ever shot four rounds in the 60s — Woods in 2000. Either Casey or Oosthui- zen could complete that on Sun- day. But who knows what might happen, how they might feel? In 1999, Scotsman Paul Lawrie en- tered the final round trailing by 10, and won. Of course, he needed the meltdown provided by Jean Van de Velde, who entered the fi- nal round up by five but, quite in- famously, made a ridiculous tri- ple bogey on the 72nd hole to do so.
PETER MUHLY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES Englishman Paul Casey, No. 3 in the world but without a major title, watches his drive from the second tee during his round of 5-under 67.
from things that happen and move on.”
Some of these guys, though, ha-
ven’t had these experiences. The others could offer advice on what not to do. “I’ve made the mistake of chas- ing in majors before,” Westwood said. “Got off to a bad start, and then looked at it afterwards and realized I did not need to be that
aggressive.” But that leaves the matter of
what to do. Saturday morning, Oosthuizen got a call from coun- tryman Ernie Els, the 2002 Open champion. “Just have fun,” Els told Oos- thuizen. “Enjoy it.”
Easy for a three-time major winner to say. After an intermina- ble wait for a 4:40 p.m. tee time —
pushed back because the second round had to be completed Satur- day morning — Oosthuizen found himself nervous on the first tee. He had, after all, made the cut just once in eight previous ma- jors. When he reached the green, his first putt ran some 10 feet by, and he missed the come-backer for an opening bogey. “I knew you could so easily just
lose it,” he said. Somehow, though, it was his only real mistake of the day. He steadied himself by getting up- and-down for two pars early, then birdied the seventh and the ninth to build his advantage to three over Casey, the only one keeping him within range. Even when he hit what looked to be his only bad shot of the day — dropping his 5-
Is there a Van de Velde here this week? Sunday, Oosthuizen will join Casey in the day’s final group. Kaymer and Stenson will precede them, Westwood and Canizares one group further ahead. “I’m not sure I’m able to ex- plain what it would mean,” Casey said. That’s natural. Because like the
vast majority of players who have a shot at winning this Open, he has only watched others embrace the claret jug. Sunday night, one of them could get that brand new feeling.
svrlugab@washpost.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156