Schwartzel puts Oosthuizen's (expensive) tip to good use at Players

“I’ll ask him for a percentage [of his winnings] after this week,” says Oosthuizen. 

Andy Roberts's picture
Sat, 12 May 2018
Schwartzel puts Oosthuizen's (expensive) tip to good use at Players

Louis Oosthuizen has revealed how a potential victory for Charl Schwartzel at The Players Championship this weekend could earn him fortunes following a recent bit of advice he gave his good friend. 

Schwartzel currently lies tied second heading into the weekend on 10-under par but five strokes adrift of runaway leader Webb Simpson, who tied the TPC Sawgrass course record with a blistering 9-under 63 that included a double-bogey at the island green 17th.

But the South African had been struggling for form prior to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event several weeks ago, where he paired up with Oosthuizen to finish third, a week before going on to finish tied ninth at the Wells Fargo Championship.

In the eyes of Oosthuizen, the major issue for Schwartzel was tempo.

“Getting quick has always been my fault from the time I started playing the game, so if I can keep the right tempo going, I'm going to keep hitting good shots,” Schwartzel said.

But it just wasn’t the tempo of Schwartzel’s swing that needed to be adjusted.

“I’ve known him all my years, and he’s always been a guy who you could see him visualising the shot before he goes in, he takes his time. When he did that he hit pretty good shots,” said Oosthuizen, who 

“There’s nothing wrong with his swing, but he sort of got quick with everything. Quick with walking, quick into the shot and just doing everything a lot faster.”

Schwartzel didn’t make a single bogey on Day 2 at TPC Sawgrass and is currently ninth in the field in strokes gained: tee to green.

“I’ll ask him for a percentage [of his winnings] after this week,” Oosthuizen joked.