South Africa provide strong challenge in Masters

Much has been made of England having eight players in next week’s Masters, but the South African contingent is arguably even stronger.

Ernie Els is on course for a second successive victory in Florida – rain forced the finish there to spill into today – and Louis Oosthuizen took the Andalucian Open in Malaga yesterday.

Charl Schwartzel tops the European Tour money list and finished second to Els in Miami recently, while Trevor Immelman was Masters champion two years ago and Retief Goosen, Tim Clark and Rory Sabbatini have all been second there in recent years.

Oosthuizen has left it late to join his illustrious compatriots in the field for Augusta, but in the end he did it in style.

The 27-year-old was 75th in the world rankings in early February, but in his last five events he has come second, third, 44th, second and now first.

Needing to triumph at the Parador club to climb back into the world’s top 50 just in time for the opening major of the season Oosthuizen beat Scot Peter Whiteford and England’s Richard Finch by three.

It gave him his first European Tour crown and meant he could put behind him four runners-up finishes, the last of them to Welshman Rhys Davies in Morocco eight days ago.

“I was disappointed with that (he led by three with 15 holes to play in Rabat), but Rhys out-played me,” said Oosthuizen.

“I still had confidence coming here, though, and knew I was good enough to win.

“It’s unbelievable – two months ago my goal was to play The Masters. Now I want to stay in the top 50 and be competitive every time I play.”

Last April Oosthuizen, a product of the Ernie Els Foundation, edged American Davis Love out of 50th spot – and therefore out of Augusta – by 0.045 ranking points.

He went on to miss the halfway cut on his debut by five strokes. This time he made it with a bit more to spare and will hope to improve his performance there as well.

Whiteford had never previously finished higher than sixth in a European Tour event, but the Challenge Tour graduate provided the biggest threat to Oosthuizen yesterday.

The Kirkcaldy golfer did so without the driver which had served him so well in the first two rounds.

It was missing from his bag when he went to practise on Saturday and he had to make do with his reserve for the closing 36 holes.

Former Irish Open champion Finch birdied the last two holes to take a share of second place, but with the Portuguese Open originally scheduled for this week being postponed until June they both now have time off before resuming their campaigns.