Oosthuizen reigns to take South Africa title

DURBAN: Louis Oosthuizen overcame a five-shot deficit with a final round of 66 to beat Britain’s Scott Jamieson by one stroke to the Volvo Golf Champions title at Durban Country Club on Sunday.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Final leaderboard-16: L Oosthuizen (SA)-15: S Jamieson (Sco)-14: T Jaidee (Tha)-12: P Harrington (Ire)* Selected others -10: P Lawrie (Sco)* -9: T Bjorn (Den)* -7: P Casey (Eng), E Els (SA)DURBAN: Louis Oosthuizen overcame a five-shot deficit with a final round of 66 to beat Britain’s Scott Jamieson by one stroke to the Volvo Golf Champions title at Durban Country Club on Sunday.Jamieson had started the day on 15-under, and enjoyed a five-stroke lead over Oosthuizen, Thongchai Jaidee and Julien Quesne, but could only manage a final-round 72 and had to settle for sole second.Oosthuizen, who yesterday surrendered the lead as he struggled to a 74, birdied two of the first three holes to put the pressure on Jamieson. Further birdies at the sixth and eighth holes rounded off an outward nine of 32, and he had reduced the deficit to one by the turn.Birdies at the 10th and 11th holes propelled him into the lead, and, despite bogeying the par-four 16th after finding the greenside bunker, Oosthuizen’s two-putt pars at the 17th and 18th holes were enough to clinch victory."I played the complete opposite of what I did yesterday,” he said. "Yesterday I felt really uncomfortable - my swing felt long and unstable. This morning I worked on a few things on the range, and put my head down. I knew if I could just put a score up there, or just get close to Scott, that I had a good chance.Oosthuizen’s win is the sixth consecutive South African success in a European Tour event at Durban Country Club, and it also marks the third successive year in which his European Tour season has started with a win in his native country.