Oosthuizen makes a major statement

Thanks to the steady play of Louis Oosthuizen yesterday, the 139th British Open at St. Andrews had a finishing act as exciting as a week-old Senate hearing on C-SPAN.

ESPN analyst Paul Azinger did his best to put lipstick on a pig by marveling at its clinical nature, but Oosthuizen's seven-stroke victory at the birthplace of golf was like watching someone enjoy warm milk and cookies over the closing holes. When Oosthuizen bogeyed the eighth hole and saw his lead shrink to three shots, it opened the door just slightly for playing partner and closest pursuer Paul Casey to mount a charge.

But then Oosthuizen showed a champion's heart by driving the par-4 ninth green and rolling in a 40-foot eagle putt just when it looked like Casey had a chance to make a move. Three holes later all questions about the outcome were answered when Casey hit his drive into a gorse bush on his way to a triple bogey and Oosthuizen increased his lead to eight shots with a birdie. It was game, set, match.

The last six holes were basically a victory march for a relatively unknown son of a South African dairy farmer who enjoyed a four-shot lead after 54 holes. Though he was ranked 54th in the world entering the tournament, Oosthuizen also was a 200-to-1 long shot in most Auld Grey Toon betting parlors.

What the closing holes lacked in competitive drama was made up for in the feel-good story of a major underdog prevailing while most were expecting a collapse. Bettors afraid to bet on Oosthuizen had good reason. He had just won his first European Tour event earlier this year and had only made the cut in one of the eight previous majors he’d played. Considering his best previous finish in a major was a distant 73rd and that he had only broken 70 once in any of those venerable championships, it should be no surprise that few expected him to turn in a Tiger Woods-like runaway performance with a stress-free closing 71.

His winning margin of seven shots over Lee Westwood was second only to Woods' 2005 victory at St. Andrews and two strokes shy of the largest at the British Open in 140 years. Casey finished the back nine in 40 for a 75 and slipped into a share of third-place with Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson.

“He’s been unbelievable the whole week,” Zach Rasego, Oosthuizen’s caddy for the last seven years, said. “The media didn’t give him a chance at all. But he’s done it before. He won a tournament at home by 14 shots. So it’s not like the boy can not play. I understand that this is a big tournament, but people didn’t give him a chance at all.”

Oosthuizen, 27, is a product of the Ernie Els Foundation and he gave tribute to his mentor, who won the 2002 British Open, in his victory speech. Els, who missed the cut this year, was impressed by his protégé’s demeanor.

“I played a practice round with him last Sunday and, typically for him, he didn’t give himself a chance,” Els said. “He is a quiet and unassuming guy, but he has shown everyone what a great champion he is.”

With a 16-under-par total of 272, three more than Woods in 2000, Oosthuizen followed in the footsteps of countrymen Bobby Locke, Gary Player -- four and three-time British Open winners respectively -- and Els.

Oosthuizen, who rose to 15th in the Official World Golf Rankings with his victory, didn't point to himself in his victory speech, however. He instead immediately wished former South African president Nelson Mandela a happy 92nd birthday.

"It's unbelievable -- just amazing," Oosthuizen said. "It's probably going to hit me tomorrow or the week after. I felt like I played well all week and the biggest goal for me was to stay cool."

He accomplished that and more. Oldgolfdawg was struck by the effusive praise piled on Oosthuizen by the ESPN broadcast team during its telecast. Tom Watson, in particular, kept repeating how much he like Shrek's (Oosthuizen's nickname because of the gap in his teeth) swing. Azinger, Curtis Strange and Tom Weiskopf were all struck by how well Oosthuizen managed the pressure and by how well he drove the ball. For a little guy weighing all of 165 pounds, Oosterhuizen displayed amazing power and accuracy.

This British Open could turn out to be the coming out party for a new force in golf. Retief Goosen, a two-time U.S. Open winner from South Africa, is in the camp of those who believe just that, saying, "I think he'll be around for many years to come."

Information from EuropeanTour.com, ESPN.com, and PGATOUR.com contributed to this post.