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Louis Oosthuizen is certain he knows what he needs to do to claim a second Major Championship after putting himself within one shot of the lead heading into the weekend at the 2021 U.S. Open Championship.

Sunshine Tour rising star Garrick Higgo had just won the Palmetto Championship at Congaree and was being interviewed by CBS’s Jim Nantz on the 18th green. His mom, Susan, who had flown in Thursday, was FaceTiming relatives back home in South Africa.

Everything was moving so fast, and then Nantz announced to the crowd that by winning – by one over a six-some of players that included 54-hole leader Chesson Hadley (75) – Higgo, 22, had just secured PGA TOUR membership through the end of the 2023 season.

Oh, and a spot in the Masters Tournament next year, too. Susan gasped, then laughed.

For Higgo, a lefthander with a winning smile who had won twice in his last three starts on the European Tour, life had just changed dramatically.

“I’m just proud of the way I hung in there,” he said in his virtual press conference after posing with the trophy on the 18th green. “It was tough all the way from the start. Definitely didn’t have my A game in terms of off the tee, but I like that sometimes. I like not having to play perfect golf. I enjoy scrambling and making a couple putts, which I did, which was awesome.”

None was bigger than his par save from 9 1/2 feet after driving into the trees on 17.

Gary Player, who had told him before the round not to pay too much attention to what everyone else was doing, called to congratulate him after the press conference was over.

Player knew exactly the winding road Higgo had taken to get here. When he was 9, he and his two siblings and their parents were in a car accident that took the life of their father, Guillermo. Player, who had lost his mom when he was that age, wrote a letter and began to take Higgo under his wing.

Higgo had learned the game from his dad from the age of 2. They played in Pecanwood, in the North West Province of South Africa, less than an hour from their home in Johannesburg. Garrick was the golfing sibling, and his love of the game brought him closer to his father.

“He was a very good cricketer,” he said of Guillermo. “He was 6’10” I think, so he was really, really big. My uncle is like 6’11” so, yeah, we’re a big family. I’m not that big. My brother is very big, though. … My earliest memories would just be, when I was really, really little, I would just go with him. I just really loved golf. I loved going with him. It was kind of our thing.”

The family recovered, and all are doing well. Susan is an engineer. Older brother Michael and younger sister Calis are both in school back home. She’s studying fashion, he business. Higgo, who says they all support one another in their endeavors, kept playing golf after the accident, and his game improved.

He played for the International Team in the 2017 Junior Presidents Cup, and captain Trevor Immelman was impressed. “He just had a calmness about him that exceeded his age,” he told PGATOUR.com recently. (Higgo now seems likely to be on Immelman’s 2022 Presidents Cup Team at Quail Hollow.)

Still, Higgo has freely admitted he was never the best amateur. There were other players, even others in South Africa, like the long-hitting Wilco Nienaber, who could beat him on any given day. He went to America for college – the yardage book in his back pocket still says UNLV – but stayed only two semesters before turning pro in his sophomore year.

His equanimity and cheerful nature, plus hard work, saw him through the transition.

“You can’t tell if he’s shooting the lights out or playing poorly,” said his caddie, Nick Cavendish-Pell. “He’s just very calm out there. Very levelheaded guy.”

He won the Tour Championship on the Sunshine Tour. He won twice on the European Tour, both tournaments on Spain’s Canary Islands, then ventured to America in advance of the PGA Championship. His agents, who live at Sea Island, set him up in a rental house there and introduced him to TOUR players like Harris English, Zach Johnson and Keith Mitchell.

“A bunch of good guys,” Higgo said.

He didn’t have far to drive to get to the PGA at Kiawah, where he finished T64. He went back to Sea Island to keep practicing, and kept his head down as he played from behind all week at Congaree.

And now this – changing everything.

“I mean, my dream’s always been to play on the PGA TOUR permanently,” Higgo said to the question of where he’ll play, “so at the moment, I’ll focus on that, see if I can keep going.”

The interview with Nantz, the Teams talk with the writers, and the phone call from Player were all over, and Higgo sped off to catch the TOUR’s 8:30 p.m. charter flight to California.

The 121st U.S. Open, his third TOUR start and second major, awaits. – PGA Tour

Alex Haindl claimed his fourth victory on the Sunshine Tour when he won the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City at the Gary Player Country Club on Friday.

Haindl took a two-stroke lead into the final round of a tournament he led from day one, and held on to win by a single stroke over Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya and Jaco Ahlers on seven under par, closing with a 73.

“I’m delighted. I kind of came into the week with a bit of a mission to at least have a top three finish. I’m very happy to have won, especially on a golf course like this one,” said Haindl.

But it took all of his resolve to do so. After a strong start where Haindl birdied three of his first four holes, the Bloemfontein golfer bogeyed the tough eighth hole and then hit it in the water on the par-five ninth on his way to a double bogey that handed Muthiya the lead.

“I had a great start, but to be honest I didn’t get too excited because I’ve played golf way too often to know that on a course like this one, somewhere something is going to happen,” said Haindl.

“On the ninth I laid up but I was in the semi-rough, and I don’t know if I had a mud ball or something but my third shot came out absolutely horrible and went straight into the water. It didn’t bother me that Madalitso was leading going into the back nine though, because again, I just know this game and this course.”

Muthiya birdied the 10^th but then ran into trouble of his own with a double bogey and bogey in his next two holes that again opened the door for Haindl.

“I just tried to keep it solid on the back nine. It was playing tough and the pins were extremely tricky, so I just tried to keep things simple. Any win is nice, but a win on this golf course, which I’ve never really felt suits my game, makes it a lot more special.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Alex Haindl will take a two-stroke lead into Friday’s final round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City as he seeks to claim his first Sunshine Tour victory in three years.

Haindl signed for a second round of 69 at the Gary Player Country Club on Thursday, dropping only one shot in his round and making a good birdie at the difficult par-four eighth hole as he climbed to eight under par overall.

“It’s the perfect place to be. Hopefully I can keep it up and come out on top,” he said.

His nearest challenger is Jaco Ahlers, who posted a 67 to see him climb to six under par. Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya is still in the hunt on five under par following a 69.

Haindl has been incredibly solid at the top of the leaderboard since the first round as he looks to finally overcome a long struggle with a back injury and add to his three Sunshine Tour titles to date.

“This was really a nice follow-up round to my opening round,” he said. “I tried to approach the golf course in the same way, but I actually felt like I hit it better today. I gave myself a lot of chances, but I left a few putts out there.”

The single bogey on his scorecard was another source of confidence for Haindl, who in 2018 had to undergo a spinal fusion to correct a previous surgery and which has him playing on a medical exemption this year.

“I’m happy that the work I’ve been putting in is coming together. It has been a while since my last win, and it’s good to be in contention again and playing better. Let’s be honest, when it’s going bad, this is the hardest game in the world. But when I was working on my game and practising at home, there were signs of improvement that give you confidence, even though there were times when I had a lot of pain and struggled to move.

“Only one bogey on this golf course is pleasing because limiting your mistakes here is key. But I’ve been doing a lot of things well for the past two days, and I’ve been putting the ball in the right places. That birdie on the eighth was a real bonus because I wasn’t taking all the chances that came my way, and then to make a 15-footer for birdie there was very pleasing.”

Behind him, Ahlers finds himself in contention going into a final round for his second tournament in succession. His 74 in the final round of the recent Dimension Data Pro-Am to relinquish his shot at that title will no doubt still rankle with him, and Friday’s final round offers the perfect chance to make amends. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Alex Haindl took another major step forward in his comeback from injury as he opened with a five-under-par 67 to lead the first round of the Sunshine Tour’s SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City at the Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday.

Haindl, who is currently playing on a medical exemption for a back injury, leads by two shots over Jaco van Zyl and Luke Jerling following their rounds of 69.

Teeing off the first, Haindl birdied two of his first three holes. He turned at one under after a bogey on the difficult eighth, but he claimed that shot back with a birdie on the 10^th. And then he closed with three birdies in his last five holes.

Haindl is hunting his first Sunshine Tour title since 2018 and the fourth of his career. A solid opening round on the challenging Gary Player Country Club course is exactly what he would’ve hoped for as he continues to work his way back from back surgery.

“I had a dynamic fusion in my back in 2015, but unfortunately that failed at the end of 2018 when I was having a really good year. It just collapsed and the screws literally came loose in my back. Then they had to fuse my back. So I’ve been working on strengthening it ever since,” he said.

All of which makes such a good start on the Gary Player Country Club course all the more rewarding.

“It’s nice to get off to a bit of a better start. I just tried to stay in play off the tees and take whatever I could from there. This course is a real grind. To be honest, this has never been a course I’ve felt suits my game because I’ve never felt I’m really long enough. But I had a nice round today and that builds a bit of confidence. I felt like I kept it in play nicely. So hopefully I can stick to my gameplan and hopefully that leads to another two good rounds.”

Van Zyl’s opening round was highlighted by him holing out with his second on the par-four first hole, which played as his 10^th hole of the day.

Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya is currently fourth following an opening two-under-par 70. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

The Sunshine Tour resumes its schedule this week, and with that Neil Schietekat will resume his quest for a victory that seems imminent when he tees it up in the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City starting on Wednesday.

After a brief break following the South African Swing of tournaments co-sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour, the famed Gary Player Country Club welcomes the Tour for the first time since Christiaan Bezuidenhout won the South African Open here in December 2020.

Schietekat returns as the 2018 winner of the SunBet Challenge. It was a triumph that ended a five-year drought between his first victory on the Sunshine Tour and his second.

And he is back at the Gary Player Country Club this week in arguably the best form of his career. The hard work he has been doing with coach Grant Veenstra has led to an incredible level of consistency in his game, with Schietekat having finished in the top 10 in five of his last six tournaments. This includes two third-place finishes.

That stretch of great form actually saw him climb 129 places on the world rankings to 233^rd by the end of those five tournaments.

But what he’ll feel is missing is a victory. He came close when he challenged for the Gauteng Championship presented by Betway at Ebotse in March, but a double-bogey seven on the final hole cost him a title that went to Jbe’ Kruger as Schietekat finished third.

Schietekat will certainly relish bringing his current form to the Gary Player Country Club. Since the SunBet Challenge moved from the neighbouring Lost City Golf Course to the Gary Player Country Club in 2016, Schietekat has had a win and finishes of sixth and 16^th in this tournament.

Apart from Schietekat, the field this week includes another two former champions in Adilson da Silva, who won this event in 2013 when it was played at the Lost City Golf Course, and Keith Horne, the winner in 2015 and also at the Lost City Golf Course. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Oosthuizen praises Mickelson despite disappointment new

Louis Oosthuizen admitted his disappointment at yet another runner-up finish in a Major, but paid tribute to the historic PGA Championship victory of Phil Mickelson.

Speaking to the media after his final round of 73 on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course on Sunday, Oosthuizen said he is fighting hard to win the second Major of his career but that his game was just not where he wanted it to be as he finished on four under par and two strokes behind Mickelson.

“Look, I feel like I’m playing my heart out to get a second Major, and I do know I have the game to do it. This was close. My game wasn’t great on the weekend. It was better today than yesterday. So I just need to work harder on it to get myself in contention again.”

This is Oosthuizen’s second runner-up finish in the PGA Championship, the other coming in 2017. He currently owns his own “Grand Slam” of runner-up finishes in the Majors after finishing second in the Masters in 2012, second in the US Open in 2015, second in The Open in 2015, and now twice second in the PGA Championship.

“You know, another second place, I’ve got to take it. But I feel like I could have probably got two or three more shots out of my game. It was a slow start, but I felt I hit decent iron shots. I stroked it really nice today and just didn’t make anything. Every single putt I hit finished right behind the hole, so it was frustrating with that.”

But Oosthuizen was full of praise for what Mickelson achieved in becoming the oldest winner of a Major at the age of 50.

“It was like the Phil that I remember watching just when I turned pro and it was great to see. I mean, what an achievement to win a Major at 50 years old, and he deserves all of that. It was not easy with the wind, and you know, he kept calm. That’s unbelievable and great stuff.”

Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished as the next best South African in the field on two over par following a closing 77. Branden Grace finished with a 78 for a total of three over par, while Daniel van Tonder ended the week on four over with a closing 73.

Dean Burmester finished on seven over with a 73, and Garrick Higgo signed for a solid final round of 69 for a total of eight over par.

Photo: Getty Images

Shaun Norris claimed his fifth victory on the Japan Golf Tour when he won a three-way playoff for the Golf Partner Pro-Am at the Toride Kokusai Golf Club on Sunday.

Norris beat Zimbabwean Scott Vincent and Tomohiro Otsuki on the second hole of the playoff.

It was a week of incredible golf for Norris, who opened with a 60 and then signed for a final round of 63 to tie for the lead on 21 under par.

As he explained to his Japanese audience, “This pro-am format may be new to the Japan Golf Tour, but in my home country on the Sunshine Tour we play the majority of our tournaments in this format, so I am used to it.”

Norris said the victory is a timely one as he seeks to win more titles this year.

“I wasn’t able to come to the Japan Golf Tour last year so I am way down on the money list , but I will fight on hard to catch up. I want to win at least two more tournaments this season.”

Louis Oosthuizen is two shots off the lead going into the final round of the PGA Championship as he chases his second Major title.

Despite what he said was a day of poor golf by his high standards, Oosthuizen signed for a level-par 72 to finish 54 holes on five under par overall.

Phil Mickelson managed to extend his lead to seven under par with a third round of 70, and he leads by one stroke over second-placed Brooks Koepka, who also signed for a 70.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Branden Grace are still both in the top five on three under par following respective third rounds of 72.

Oosthuizen is certainly well placed going into the final round, and despite feeling that he wasn’t at his best on Saturday.

“That was probably the worst I’ve played in a while,” he said. “Especially the first 10 holes going along with Phil hitting it beautifully and playing great, I was all over the place. I could sense early on that I wasn’t on song, especially I felt a move in my driver that I didn’t like, and from there it wasn’t good.

“So I was just sort of fighting to stay in it, and you know, at the end there, I started judging the greens wrong and everything just fell apart. All in all, two behind going into Sunday, I’ve got to take a lot of positives out of that with the way I was playing today. I think anyone within four or five shots is still in for a good shot.”

But Mickelson will certainly prove to be hard to catch with the kind of mindset he currently has and with the chance to make history as the first golfer to win a Major after turning 50.

“I believe that I’m playing really well and I have an opportunity to contend for a Major championship on Sunday, and I’m having so much fun,” he said.

Of the other South Africans in the field, Daniel van Tonder signed for a third round of 74 to go into the final day on three over par. Dean Burmester also posted a 74 to put him on six over par, while Garrick Higgo carded a 78 to finish the day on 11 over par.