Louis Oosthuizen has reflected for the first time after another disappointing final-round finish at a Major had him miss out on a British Open title this past weekend.
After another Major near-miss at Royal St George’s, disappointed South African Louis Oosthuizen returns to chasing his first US victory at this week’s PGA 3M Open.
The 38-year-old from Mossel Bay won the 2010 British Open but has settled for six runner-up Major finishes and two more third-place efforts since his lone Major triumph at St Andrews.
World No 9 Oosthuizen arrived for Thursday’s start at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, after sharing third place Sunday at the British Open behind US winner Collin Morikawa.
“Very disappointing the way I played the stretch of holes there in the middle of the round,” Oosthuizen said on Wednesday.
“Gave it a good push on the back nine. In the end, I was just too far behind, needed to force things and couldn’t make up the shots.”
Oosthuizen departed without speaking to reporters about his latest frustrations, but said his feelings were what one would expect after having also shared second behind Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship in May and taken runner-up spot behind Spain’s Jon Rahm in June’s US Open.
“You don’t want to always talk about close again, finishing second, finishing third,” Oosthuizen said. “I wasn’t really up for that conversation right there. It was disappointing walking off the golf course.”
However, Oosthuizen said he was proud of his Major efforts in 2021.
“Being able to perform at Majors is what it’s all about but, yeah, being that close, you want the second one,” he said. “You also look back and look at it as you came that close and you couldn’t get it.
“But I’ll still have hopefully quite a few Majors in me and hopefully I can get another one under the belt.”
Oosthuizen is glad to have a break from Majors after seven in the past year.
“It’s great if you felt like your game was really good and you’re playing well,” he said. “But it’s nice to take a bit of a breather.”
© Agence France-Presse
