Louis Oosthuizen pointed to his lack of success on the greens as he fell short in his bid to chase down Justin Thomas at Quail Hollow, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
READ: Thomas the king of Quail Hollow
Oosthuizen now has the unwanted ‘honour’ of runner-up finishes in all of golf’s Majors, after adding the 2017 PGA Championship to his 2012 Masters defeat to Bubba Watson, and his 2015 runner-up finishes at the US Open and The Open – another playoff defeat, this time to Zach Johnson.
The Mossel Bay star carded a 70 on Sunday, with a chip-in eagle on 15 and a 60-foot birdie on the last his only real highlights.
“I didn’t really make any putts the whole round, the only putt I made was on the last hole,’ said Oosthuizen.
Just when he moved himself into contention on the back nine on Sunday, he missed the fairway on the must-birdie 10th hole, which left him settling for par before pushing his drive on the 11th, which resulted in a costly bogey.
‘Two loose shots on ten and 11 probably cost me one, maybe two shots,’ he said.
And then came the eagle on 15 that vaulted him right back into contention at a time when Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama were faltering and not running Thomas close. But then another error on 16 as he found the fairway bunker, leaving himself a 90-foot putt for birdie, which meant his race was run when he failed to get down in two.
‘I gave it everything I had, coming in. I left myself with an impossible first putt on 16 and could have done better than that, but three-putted. And then difficult hitting it close on 17, trying to make birdie. Hit one good putt on 18.’
The win did have the added bonus of a seven-place rankings jump – read that story HERE!
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
