Louis Oosthuizen (-15) and Charl Schwartzel (-15) are set to compete for the victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship tomorrow without a doubt. The former has turned in a scorecard of 63 strokes on the third day and the latter another of 65, so they have been called to the heights, far from the rest, since their immediate pursuers, Andy Sullivan (-10) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-10) will start in the final round five strokes behind on the beautiful course of the Leopard Creek Country Club (Malelane, South Africa).
Let’s be serious: it is very difficult to think that either of these two South African golf legends, Louis or Charl, who will go out together in the star match on Sunday, will not be able to take the prize. Sure, golf is unpredictable, but they have it in their hands and the duel promises strong emotions. Let’s remember, if it serves any purpose, that Oosthuizen has never won in this place, while Schwartzel has done it four times already.
And they need to win badly. They are not guys who show too much emotion, and both are seen serene and even happy in LIV Golf, where they left without blinking from its very start. But even they, with a more than notable career behind them before landing in the Saudi league, need to claim victory from time to time, and it has been a long time, probably too long, since they have achieved it.
We must refer to the data. Schwartzel won that first LIV Golf tournament, in June 2022, but since then he has not even had options. Neither in LIV, nor outside of LIV. Furthermore, to find his previous victory, before the one mentioned in the Saudi league, we have to go back to the year 2016. As for Oosthuizen, his records are not much better. Louis has not yet managed to win any tournament in LIV Golf (his best results in a year and a half are two fourth places, a fifth and a sixth) and to find his last victory we have to go back to the year 2018, when he won the South African Open. More than five years have passed…
Manu Elvira (-4) has fallen too far behind the lead, and even the top ten of the tournament, after signing a round of 75 strokes today, with a first third of the round too irregular and giving too much advantage to the rest in the par 5 of the South African course, in which today he has not achieved a single birdie. But, as always must be noted in these cases, he still has a round to recover and finish adding as many points as possible. Everything counts. Alex del Rey (-7) has left himself the option to do something important, three strokes from the top 10 after signing 66 strokes, the third best round of the day.
