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King Louis reigns at St Andrews
Rank outsider Louis Oosthuizen won the Open Championship on Sunday, capturing golf's biggest prize by a stunning seven strokes with an accomplished display of front-running.
It was the biggest winning margin in the world's oldest and most prestigious tournament since Tiger Woods won here on the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland, by eight strokes in 2000.
The 27-year-old South African, a 200-1 betting shot on Wednesday, started the day on 15-under par, four strokes ahead of England's Paul Casey and with the rest of the field already left trailing in his wake.
Plotting his way around the Old Course links, Oosthuizen was never really threatened as he carded a closing 71 for a 16-under total of 272.
The runner-up spot, a distant seven strokes back, went to England's Lee Westwood who closed with a 70 with three players in a tie for third a stroke further back - Rory McIlroy (68), Henrik Stenson (67) and Casey (75).
"It's unbelievable," said Oosthuizen.
"It was difficult having such a big lead to keep calm and focused, but I kept calm all the way.
"I'm glad I had eight shots on 18! I think I cramped up a bit with the putter. It's just amazing."
It was just the second top-level tournament win of Oosthuizen's career after the lowly Andalucia Open in March and it came on a day of celebration back home for Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday.
Ranked 54th in the world coming into St Andrews, Oosthuizen was the fourth South African to win the Open after Bobby Locke (1949, 1950, 1952, 1957), Gary Player (1954, 1968, 1974) and Ernie Els (2002).
It was the biggest upset win in an Open at the Home of Golf since American Tony Lema won on his debut at the Old Course in 1964.
Oosthuizen carded superb rounds of 65, 67 and 69 to set up his winning position and only Casey with rounds of 69, 69 and 67 managed to hang onto his coat tails.
EARLY CHANCE
Casey had an immediate chance to crank up the pressure on his more inexperienced playing partner when he hit his approach to within five feet at the first, but he pushed his putt wide.
The Englishman then bogeyed the second to provide Oosthuizen with the perfect start as he himself held firm with two pars to stretch his lead to five.
Casey had another chance to pull one back at the par-five fifth but again failed to sink a makeable birdie putt.
Ahead of them, no-one among the chasing pack was able to mount a charge.
Martin Kaymer of Germany, who had been in third place overnight at eight over, bogeyed the first, while Stenson of Sweden, Westwood and Alejandro Canizares of Spain all parred the first four holes when it was birdies they needed to stand any chance of reeling in the leader.
Casey did cut the lead to three when he birdied the sixth and Oosthuizen had his first of two bogeys on the day after over-hitting his tee-shot at the par-three eighth.
But on the next hole, Oosthuizen drove the short, par-four green and sunk a 30-footer for a crucial eagle, while Casey had to settle for a birdie. The lead was back to where it started at four over.
When Casey clattered his drive into thick gorse on the tricky par-four 12th minutes later and limped off with a triple bogey seven to Oosthuizen's birdie three, it was all over.
Westwood eventually passed a fading Casey for the runner-up slot making it four top-three finishes in the last five majors.
"Whether I won the tournament today was in the hands of other people," the European number one said.
"Louis has obviously played great and thoroughly deserves to win. So there's not even any real disappointment.
"If you get close and you lose, then there's disappointment, but I didn't even get within eight shots today."
Casey also paid tribute to the South African, who only went in one of St Andrews' many bunkers all week.
"That was an unbelievable performance," he said.
"He was very calm, played wonderful golf, and all credit to him. I'm disappointed, but the emphasis has to be on that performance, because that was fantastic."
WHIMPER FROM TIGER
World number one Woods, whose hopes of an unprecedented hat-trick of Open wins at St Andrews evaporated with a disappointing 73 on Saturday leaving him 12 shots off the lead, had two double-bogey fours on the front nine.
He battled back to finish with a par 72, but at three under for the tournament he was way back in a tie for 23rd place, his dreams of a 15th major well and truly shattered.
"I drove it great all week, hit my irons pretty good, and I did not putt well except for the first day," he said.
"I believe I had like nine three putts for the week, so consequently I'm pretty far down the board."
Ulster young gun McIlroy, who opened with starkly contrasting rounds of 63 and 80, finished strongly with a 68 which left him tied for third.
"I couldn't help but think about Friday (80) going up the last hole there," he said.
"If I had just sort of stuck in a little bit more on Friday and held it together more, it could have been a different story. But the other three rounds I played very, very solidly."
FINAL SCORES:
272 Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) 65 67 69 71
279 Lee Westwood (Britain) 67 71 71 70
280 Rory McIlroy
(Britain) 63
80 69 68
Henrik Stenson
(Sweden) 68 74 67
71
Paul Casey
(Britain)
69 69 67 75
281 Retief Goosen (South Africa) 69 70 72 70
282 Robert Rock
(Britain)
68 78 67 69
Sean
O'Hair
67 72 72 71
Nick
Watney
67 73 71 71
Martin Kaymer
(Germany)
69 71 68 74
283 Alvaro Quiros
(Spain)
72 70 74 67
Jeff
Overton
73 69 72 69
Luke Donald
(Britain)
73 72 69 69
284 Rickie
Fowler
79 67 71 67
Tom
Lehman
71 68 75 70
Charl Schwartzel
(South Africa) 71 75 68
70
Ignacio Garrido
(Spain) 69 71 73
71
a-Jin Jeong (South
Korea) 68 70 74
72
Robert Karlsson
(Sweden) 69 71 72
72
Sergio Garcia
(Spain)
71 71 70 72
J.B.
Holmes
70 72 70 72
Dustin
Johnson
69 72 69 74
285 Trevor
Immelman (South Africa) 68 74 75 68
Graeme McDowell
(Britain) 71 68 76
70
Stephen Gallacher
(Britain) 71 73 70
71
Tiger
Woods
67 73 73 72
286 Edoardo Molinari
(Italy) 69 76 73
68
Matt
Kuchar
72 74 71 69
Ryo Ishikawa
(Japan)
68 73 75 70
Bradley Dredge
(Britain) 66 76 74
70
Marcel Siem
(Germany)
67 75 74 70
Robert Allenby
(Australia) 69 75 71
71
Adam Scott
(Australia) 72
70 72 72
Kevin
Na
70 74 70 72
Miguel Angel
Jimenez (Spain) 72 67 74
73
Alejandro Canizares
(Spain)
67 71 71 77
287 Vijay Singh
(Fiji)
68 73 76 70
Colm Moriarty
(Ireland) 72 73 72
70
Hunter
Mahan
69 76 71 71
Soren Kjeldsen
(Denmark) 72 74 70
71
Peter Hanson
(Sweden)
66 73 74 74
Ross Fisher
(Britain)
68 77 68 74
Shane Lowry
(Ireland)
68 73 71 75
288 Darren Clarke
(Britain) 70 70 77
71
Bo Van
Pelt
69 72 73 74
Camilo Villegas
(Colombia) 68 75 70
75
Ricky
Barnes
68 71 72 77
289 John Senden
(Australia) 68 76 73
72
Simon Dyson
(Britain)
69 75 73 72
Kim Kyung-tae
(South Korea) 70 74 73
72
John
Daly
66 76 74 73
Stewart
Cink
70 74 71 74
Phil
Mickelson
73 71 70 75
Lucas
Glover
67 76 70 76
290 Danny Chia
(Malaysia)
69 77 74 70
Simon Khan
(Britain)
74 69 73 74
Zane Scotland
(Britain) 70 74 72
74
Steve
Stricker
71 74 71 74
Steve
Marino
69 76 69 76
291 Ian Poulter
(Britain)
71 73 76 71
Jason Day
(Australia)
71 74 75 71
Peter Senior
(Australia) 73 71 74
73
Heath
Slocum
71 74 73 73
Toru Taniguchi
(Japan) 70 70
77 74
Yang Yong-eun (South
Korea) 67 74 76
74
Tom Pernice
Jr.
72 74 71 74
Marc Leishman
(Australia)
73 71 72 75
292 Colin Montgomerie
(Britain) 74 71 74
73
Hirofumi Miyase
(Japan) 71 75 73
73
Steven Tiley
(Britain) 66
79 73 74
Fredrik
Andersson Hed
(Sweden)
67 74 73 78
293 Andrew Coltart (Britain) 66 77 74 76
294 Mark Calcavecchia 70 67 77 80
295 Richard Johnson
(Sweden) 73 73 76
73
Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 71 73 77
74
296 Zach
Johnson
72 74 74 76
Scott
Verplank
72 73 74 77
