Compleat Golfer’s playing editor, Louis Oosthuizen, takes you into his world in another of his monthly columns.
The season is in full swing as we head to Shinnecock Hills for the US Open, another chance for me to win a Major and to get that elusive win on US soil. It’s been a bit of an up and down year so far with some good results mixed with indifferent ones.
The Masters feels like a year ago; that’s how quickly the PGA Tour season can snowball.
If you get on a good run, the quick transition between the Majors is a good thing, but if you are struggling with any aspect of your game it’s difficult to push the pause button and take the time to work on your swing.
Twitter can be restrictive when it comes to characters, but looking back, I’m happy with the way I summed up
my week at Augusta. I played well without ever catching fire as I battled my putter at times. At this level, you must have the week of your life if you want to finish on top.
It was a great experience linking up with Charl Schwartzel at the Zurich Classic. We’ve toured the world together and to tee it up in that format was so much fun, especially as we turned it on and made a great run at the trophy.
We both love The Presidents Cup because of the team aspect and the camaraderie; it’s a pity there aren’t more team events through the year. It was also a nice side note to be a part of Charl’s ‘return to form’. Results have not been going his way but after our top-five finish, he had a good showing at the Wells Fargo Championship. Golf is a funny old game; I missed the cut at Quail Hollow, which shows the fine margins at play at the highest level.
Both of us will be keen to put on a good show at the US Open, one of the hardest events we play all year because of how the course is set up. It’s been 14 years since Shinnecock hosted the event and it isn’t lost on me that the winner that year was Retief Goosen.
I’ll be sure to home in on those positive vibes as well as my dart at the 2015 title – it goes to show that the US Open can spring anything on you. I opened with a pretty poor 77 and then found my game and cut out the mistakes to finish with three rounds in the 60s (and bagged the record for the lowest final 54-hole tally in the tournament’s history) and just one shot off Jordan Spieth’s winning score.
With scoring likely to be tough at Shinnecock, the emphasis will be on keeping the ball in play, staying patient and then taking the chances when they present themselves on the greens.
I hope I don’t need another final-nine blitz to get myself into contention again, but rather let the clubs do the talking in the holes long before that, so it’s a more balanced run to the trophy.
– This column first appeared in the June issue of Compleat Golfer, now on sale!
