Louis Oosthuizen is Comfortable With Playing Less, But Still Covets One Event

The South African, now with LIV Golf, resigned his PGA Tour and DP World Tour memberships. But he still wants to play on the International Team in the Presidents Cup.

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Louis Oosthuizen is finishing a stretch of four weeks on the road that is culminating with his second LIV Golf event in Portland.

From London to Boston to Munich and to Portland, the 39-year-old needs a break, which he will get after the British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews, the site of his only major win in 2010.

Oosthuizen has a career six runner-up finishes in majors, two of those coming last year at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, which he then followed with a third in the Open Championship.

Having only one major victory on your resume may be frustrating to some, but for Oosthuizen, failure in three successive majors eventually determined his path and influenced his decision-making process in leaving the PGA Tour and joining the insurgents at LIV Golf

The losses weighed on Oosthuizen and when he returned to play in February on the PGA Tour, he was just going through the motions with no energy or interest.

In January, when his agents were contacted by LIV officials to gauge his interest in making the leap, Oosthuizen decided he was not ready.

But after a very mediocre spring with his best finish a T14 in Phoenix, Oosthuizen sat down with his wife and discussed his future.

The South African knew he was playing more golf than he was interested in playing and while he wanted to play better, he lost some of himself last year in those major defeats.

Just before the Masters, the LIV people came back to Oosthuizen, and the deal was consummated.

“I've got no plans on going back playing PGA Tour golf, so for me it was a very easy decision,” Oosthuizen said during his Wednesday practice round in Portland. “When I spoke to Jay (Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner), I told him that straight, it's nothing against the product you have, it’s just It's my time to do something else.”

That something else may be a few events in South Africa or in Asia, but no longer any on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour.

Oosthuizen played in his last event on the DP World Tour last week at the BMW International Open and then promptly resigned his membership as he had done on the PGA Tour just before teeing it up in the LIV event in London.

Before resigning, Oosthuizen talked to DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, with the discussion from the DP World Tour side being more on Oosthuizen’s timing of his resignation as the Tour wanted it to come after the event, presumably to avoid any noise or distraction.

For Oosthuizen, he was relatively sure he was dropping his membership, but wanted to know how the fines would work. He was told that each fine would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

That lack of clarity sealed it for Oosthuizen, and his decision was cemented.

Having resigned from both the DP World and PGA Tour, the only tour Oosthuizen is a member of is the Sunshine Tour, based in South Africa.

And that is what Oosthuizen hopes will make the difference when the Presidents Cup team is determined in September.

Resigning from the PGA Tour before he played a shot in the first LIV event in London, Oosthuizen talked to International Team Captain Trevor Immelmann.

“I'm going to be honest with you, this decision is not going to be on whether I can play or not play Presidents Cup,” Oosthuizen said of the subject of the discussion. ”I'm going to do what's best for me and my family and where I am now in my career, you know that that's a decision I'm gonna make. But hopefully I can play -- I can't see why not.”

Oosthuizen’s argument is a simple one, he resigned before hitting his first shot on LIV, meaning he was not a PGA Tour member when he played in London.

But what is the difference if he resigned one week or four years ago?

Richard Sterne played in the 2013 Presidents Cup and was not a PGA Tour member, but a Sunshine Tour member as is Oosthuizen now.

When the Presidents Cup started in 1994, the PGA Tour has always had complete control of who was selected on both sides, leaving the International Team with very little autonomy.

That all changed when Ernie Els took over the reins for the 2019 cup. Els changed the culture, the logos, and the ethos of the team and after a 19-11 drubbing in 2017 at Liberty National, the 16-14 narrow loss at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia provided the Internationals with hope for Quail Hollow in September.

“To me, the look of it just doesn't feel right. It's basically the PGA Tour picking the International side, which, you know, are they going to pick the Ryder Cup team on the Europe side?"

Now Immelman is in charge, and he is facing a depleted squad with Brandon Grace, Charl Schwartzel, Abraham Ancer and Oosthuizen potentially ineligible for the team either by points, which Oosthuizen would qualify on, or a captain’s pick.

“All the International players who went to LIV were well aware that it could jeopardize their chance to play in the Presidents Cup,” Immelman said by text on Wednesday. “With that and other things in mind they went ahead and made the decision they thought was best for them. It’ll be an interesting few months ahead.”

The PGA Tour took a similar tack when asked specifically about Oosthuizen’s status, with an official saying "at this time, he would not be eligible for Presidents Cup.”

Reading between the lines, neither Immelman, with his “could be jeopardized” and the Tour saying “at this time,” is a definitive no and seems to leave the door open.

“To me, the look of it just doesn't feel right,” Oosthuizen said of the PGA Tour's control over the Presidents Cup. “It's basically the PGA Tour picking the International side, which, you know, are they going to pick the Ryder Cup team on the Europe side?"

No matter if Oosthuizen does or does not play in Charlotte in September, he has made a four-year commitment to LIV Golf and will play the odd Sunshine Tour and Asian Tour events along with the majors he is eligible for.

After that he is not retiring, because he will play the odd event in South Africa or wherever he wants, but most of his time will be spent on his ranch just outside of Ocala, Florida.

While many players say it’s not about the money, but more about free schedule, for Oosthuizen it is about exactly that.

He’s given enough and now it’s about enjoying life, not again, but in a different way.

“I'm going back for a 10-day hunting trip with friends,” Oosthuizen said of how he is spending his first August not playing golf, instead hunting Springbok and Antelope in South Africa. “Something I haven't done; I can't remember since I was playing in Europe.”