Louis Oosthuizen

Last Sunday, South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen won the European Tour's season-opening Volvo Golf Champions event. As the South African, who is a past major winner and regular contender in Europe and North America, continues his successful career, this week's player profile highlights some of his recent professional milestones.

Oosthuizen hails from Mossel Bay, South Africa. When the young Oosthuizen showed great potential on the golf course, he found his way to the Ernie Els Foundation, a golf development organisation founded by Els himself. Rigorous training and mentorship followed, and Oosthuizen had the opportunity to work with Els, who mentored the young player and saw his potential from the beginning.

Oosthuizen's career breakthrough took place in 2010 when he was victorious at the British Open. Having started the tournament in the bottom 50 of the world golf rankings, the South African looked unlikely to make the cut after the first round, much less to win the tournament. As the tournament progressed however, Oosthuizen weathered the storm, gathered his immense talents and fired a record-breaking final round to lift the title. Since this major win, Louis Oosthuizen has been ranked among the world's most competitive golfers.

Since his major win, Oosthuizen has been victorious at European Tour events on four occasions. In 2011 and 2012 he won the co-sanctioned Africa Open in his native South Africa, beating Manuel Quiros and Chris Wood, and compatriot Tjaart van der Walt respectively. Last season, Oosthuizen was victorious at the Maybank Malaysian Open, carding a three-stroke victory over Britain's Stephen Gallacher.

On Sunday, Oosthuizen pulled off an amazing comeback when he beat Britain's Scott Jamieson by a single stroke to win the Volvo Golf Champions event. As the talented South African makes a great start to the new season, golf fans can look forward to many more stellar performances on the course by Louis Oosthuizen.

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