ALFRED DUNHILL CHAMPIONSHIP:LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN is hoping to use this week's season-opening Alfred Dunhill Championship at Malelane in his native South Africa to continue building momentum after a recent ankle injury.
The British Open champion, the world number 24, is the highest-ranked player present at the Leopard Creek Country Club, where fellow high-profile South Africans Charl Schwartzel and 2008 winner Richard Sterne will also compete for the €158,500 top prize.
Four other previous champions – Spaniard Pablo Martin (2009), English duo John Bickerton (2007) and Anthony Wall (2000) and Germany’s Marcel Siem (2004) – have also entered the co-sanctioned European and Sunshine Tour event, which is the first of the 2011 season.
Oosthuizen has had limited playing time since his victory at St Andrews in July, completing just five more tournaments before suffering a freak ankle injury whilst on a hunting trip in his homeland.
That put him out for two months and his return so far has seen him end 72nd at the World Golf Championships in China, 13th at the Dubai World Championship and bottom of a 12-man field at last week’s Nedbank Challenge.
“I had a long break and then in Dubai I played really nicely,” he said. “but then the Nedbank was a bit rough.”
Oosthuizen also confirmed that he was now fully over his injury, saying: “The ankle is fine. I’m still doing my stretches and things with it I need to do, but it’s perfect.” The 28-year-old finished second in the competition in 2005, but has missed the cut on his last four visits.
* The Irish challenge in South Africa will consist of Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Michael Hoey and Jonathan Caldwell.
Monty reveals Ryder bedroom secrets
COLIN Montgomerie has revealed one of the secrets of his Ryder Cup success in Wales – bigger beds than the Americans.
Less than a week before the match at Celtic Manor Europe’s captain decided that how his players slept might influence how they played.
“There are a lot of things behind the scenes you might not be aware of,” Montgomerie revealed yesterday. “I looked at the rooms and thought they weren’t big enough, so we all got connecting rooms.
“Then on the Saturday morning we got a removal company in and they brought six-foot beds and took the five-foot beds out.”
“We also had six physio beds put up on that floor and there were tailors up there as well to make sure all the outfits fitted. It was all laid on. You have one hit at this and I wanted to get it right.”
Even Montgomerie, though, did not envisage his team’s waterproofs would give them another advantage. Montgomerie believes the problem came from American captain Corey Pavin and his wife deciding to emblazon the backs of the jackets with names.
“That made them non-waterproof.
“We were prepared, but they came to Wales ill-prepared. It did help us, no question, and it did hinder them.”
