Driver concerns but flatstick joy was how Louis Oosthuizen summed up his opening round of the WGC-Mexico Championship.
SA’s No 1 is in a rich vein of form and continued that at the lucrative WGC event on Thursday as he carded a 68 to sit in a share of fourth albeit three back of the world’s best player, Rory McIlroy.
Oosthuizen was pleased with his opening effort on the tight layout despite feeling uncomfortable with driver in hand.
‘I’m struggling finding a driver that I’m comfortable with,’ he said.
‘So you’ll see me a few times in places that I’m normally not at, but yeah, I’m fighting it out, and I’ve done a good job on the greens today.’
He escaped with a bogey on the first after drawing a nasty lie in the bunker.
‘Felt like I was really lucky on 1. I pitched it on the downslope in the bunker and it stayed there, and had absolutely no shot, and ended up leaving myself 10 feet for par and missed that, so not the start I wanted. But just fought it out really, and still a lot of work to do.’
While no stranger to altitude at the effects on club selection or the kikuyu grass in play, Oosthuizen did admit the wind played a factor when combining all the elements.
‘You know, you’re not sure always to — especially downwind, how much more do you take because it goes so far. All of a sudden you go from 10 to 15 to sometimes even a little bit more percent for the elevation, and into the wind, then you don’t know — you don’t really want to hit it too low because you still want the ball to stay in the air for the altitude.
‘It’s tough, but I think I’ve played — I think a lot of guys have played here a while now, every year coming here, that you sort of know what to expect, and you’re going to have shots that go a long way and you’re going to have shots that surprise you by going short.
‘You just need to fight it out around here.’
Behind Oosthuizen on the leaderboard was Erik van Rooyen on -1 with Justin Harding and Branden Grace level. Christiaan Bezuidenhout was at +1 – one ahead of Zander Lombard – with Shaun Norris well off the pace after a 75.
