By Joel Beall
Louis Oosthuizen turned in a remarkable campaign last season. But it’s also a campaign prefaced with “what if.”

Oosthuizen, you may remember, had a whopping four top-three finishes in the 2020-21 superseason’s six majors. The final three starts were particularly impressive, finishing runner-up at the 2021 PGA Championship and 2021 U.S. Open and holding the 54-hole lead at the 2021 Open. In that same breath, this is a sport that judges stars by wins and wins alone, so as strong as his showings were they were without a trophy, begging the question, “What is holding Oosthuizen back?”

Tough as that inquiry may be—and eight major silver and bronze medals against a lone win make that inquiry fair—is it not one the man himself is entertaining.

Making his 2021-22 season debut at the Shriners Open in Las Vegas this week, Oosthuizen said he has not wondered “what if” when looking back on the year that was.

“Not really. I think it was more just after the events that sort of you think what could have been and you try and shake it off really quickly because there was always the next one coming, the next event,” Oosthuizen said. “But, yeah, it could have been a really good season, but my whole goal always is to try and get my game in a good spot when it gets to majors and try and give myself a chance playing back nine of a major championship and see if I can do something.

“And I’ve done that pretty well last year and it’s now just getting that next step by winning a championship.”

It should be said Oothuizen’s runner-up woes were not just confined to the majors. Oothuizen finished T-2 at the 3M Open, and he and fellow South African Charl Schwartzel came up short in a playoff at the Zurich Classic. Somewhat shockingly, Oothuizen’s triumph at St. Andrews in 2010 remains his lone PGA Tour victory.

Yet Oothuizen, who turns 39 this month, does feel like he discovered a cadence to his schedule that will help him break that drought this season.

“I think I’ve learned a way to do it, rest quite a bit before, take a bit of time off and then certain time before the tournament start working on things for that tournament and always work short game, doesn’t matter which event it is, you just try and keep your short game as sharp as possible,” Oothuizen explained. “But there are certain things that you are looking for in your game, try and get it out in the other events and try and try things under pressure when you play other events, by the time you get to the major you should know what to do when you’re in that situation.

“But I think we’ve, me and my team have a pretty good way of preparing for it and that’s now just up to me to, that stepping over that line to get that second major.”

Oothuizen has made 205 starts in his PGA Tour career, racking up $27.6 million in the process. He begins his new season Thursday at 10:24 ET with Jason Kokrak and Sebastián Muñoz.

The post Louis Oosthuizen is not wondering ‘what if’ about major misses appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Scottie Scheffler has done a lot in little time. The 25-year-old was the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in his freshman campaign in 2020 and put any worries of a sophomore slump to bed by making the Ryder Cup team in 2021. He is also something of a big-game hunter, finishing T-8 or better in four of his last six major starts to go along with a runner-up at the WGC-Match Play last season, and dusted World No. 1 Jon Rahm in Sunday singles during the American’s route at Whistling Straits.

The only thing Scheffler hasn’t done in his fledgling career thus far is win at the tour level (although he did win twice on the Korn Ferry circuit in 2019). Speaking at the Shriners Open on Wednesday, Scheffler was asked if it was odd to make the Ryder Cup without a trophy. Scheffler said if he wanted a victory for victory’s sake, he could check that box off. But he’s not willing to sacrifice his process to do so.

“As far as not winning on tour I think if I wanted to do something to where I could win a random event out here I would go play a weaker schedule than I do,” Scheffler said. “For me, I like playing tournaments against the best players in the world and that’s what our PGA Tour’s about and so I like competing and I’m not going to change my schedule I’m just going to keep trying to put myself in position to win tournaments.”

A glance at Scheffler’s schedule last season supports that sentiment; when the man plays, he plays in a loaded field.

To be fair, Scheffler is only 25, with less than 70 starts on tour. What he’s already accomplished at such a nascent stage of his career is impressive. Conversely, clearly there are benefits that come with a tour win, like a two-year tour membership and an invite to the Masters, and with other young guns like Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns finding the winner’s circle, it would be understandable if Scheffler was feeling antsy to join their ranks.

Scheffler maintains he’s on the right path, and as long as he stays on it he’ll arrive at that destination, although did acknowledge that perhaps he needs to focus more during the early part of the week.

“Naturally I feel really patient, I don’t feel like I was saying earlier I don’t feel a huge rush that I have to win a golf tournament out here,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I’m going to play out here for a long period of time and I enjoy the way my life is now and for me I just want to continue to put myself in position to win tournaments.

“Honestly, I think what has probably held me back is not being in a that position enough, I feel like I don’t focus hard enough on these smaller tournaments on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to where I’m locked in the entire week I think I do a better job of that at major championships, I feel like I’ve had more chances to win majors than I have regular PGA Tour events and so for me I just try to get that focus level from here and take it to there (Indicating) on Thursday through Sunday.”

Scheffler, who enters the week at No. 22 in the World Ranking, tees off Thursday at 3:24 PM EDT with defending Shriners champ Martin Laird and Webb Simpson.

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