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He has had a very good career make no mistake,
highlighted by a runaway seven-shot win at the 2010 British Open
at St. Andrews, but has also come up agonisingly short in
several other majors.
The sweet-swinging South African, whose swing seems as languid
as his temperament, has the dubious honour of completing the
runner-up grand slam of all four majors, including playoff
losses at the British Open (2015) and Masters (2012).
But victory in the PGA Championship here at Kiawah Island could
relegate those disappointments to little more than
afterthoughts.
Despite bogeying the brutal par-four 18th on Friday, which
prevented him from the only blemish-free second round, a
four-under-par 68 left Oosthuizen tied for the halfway lead with
50-year-old Phil Mickelson.
"I don't think it's a case of not being able to, or thinking
that I can't get the second. It's just both times (in major
playoffs) I was outplayed," Oosthuizen said.
"Look, it'll be great to get a second major. There's a lot of
golf left, and I just feel whenever I get to a major, I sort of
have my game where I want to have it, and mentally I feel
very strong at a major week."
The American no doubt will be the gallery favourite when he
plays with Oosthuizen in the final pairing on Saturday, but few
would seem better prepared to cope with the distractions.
Oosthuizen is seemingly unflappable, as he showed at the
214-yard 17th on Friday, where he had the honour on the tee
after a long wait.
Using the time fruitfully, he pulled out his rangefinder
distance-measuring device to check the yardage to the pin, and
then selected a four-iron.
Making sure he did not flirt with the lake right of the green,
he aimed well left and his ball rolled into a bunker, almost
exactly where he had aimed, which elicited a wry smile.
Never mind, he saved par anyway.
"I hit it in the water yesterday so I wasn't going right again,"
he said. "It was a good number for me with a four.
"If it goes in that bunker, you can just pop it out and was
fortunate to make the par for putt as well."
(Reporting by Andrew Both; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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