Centurion – Christiaan Bezuidenhout has been quietly consistent in 2022, and will fancy his chances as he leads a four-man South African charge at the Valspar Championship starting in Florida, USA, on Thursday.
Though Bezuidenhout did not tee it up at The Players Championship last week, that may just be a good thing. With the weather-affected tournament running into a fifth day on Monday, Bezuidenhout had time to work on his game with a week off.
In fact, Bezuidenhout is the top SA player on the US PGA Tour’s FedExCup standings this season at number 78. While many of his compatriots have alternated between the US PGA and the DP Tour (DPWT) this season, Bezuidenhout has played exclusively in the ‘Land of Opportunity’.
The Valspar Championship will be the eighth tournament the 27-year-old has played in 2022, and though he has not made any headlines in those events he has produced a number of solid showings. With just one missed cut, Bezuidenhout has four top-25 finishes with a best result of 14th at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am just over a month ago.
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Louis Oosthuizen will also hope to contend this week. At The Players, Oosthuizen carded three decent rounds to lie just three off the lead. However, a frustrating four-over 76 in the final round dropped him down the leaderboard as he eventually settled in a tie for 42nd.
The 2010 Open champion will be aiming to eliminate those mistakes in his final round, especially since he admitted the ‘silly errors in his first three rounds’ had already frustrated him.
Oosthuizen said after round three at The Players: “I feel the game is close. It’s not quite there.”
If his game does indeed click, the 39-year-old could easily claim his first PGA Tour title on US soil this week.
⛳️ Viktor Hovland
⛳️ Abraham Ancer
⛳️ Collin Morikawa🏌️♂️ Jason Kokrak
🏌️♂️ Brooks Koepka
🏌️♂️ Louis Oosthuizen⛳️ Shane Lowry
⛳️ Graeme McDowell
⛳️ Henrik Stenson🏌️♂️ Sam Burns
🏌️♂️ Gary Woodland
🏌️♂️ Xander Schauffele pic.twitter.com/9WSfU9e3ZW— PGATOUResp (@pgatouresp) March 15, 2022
Branden Grace is also in the field this week, but his form has been poor by his standards. The former world number 10, finds himself ranked 92nd in the world after three missed cuts in six events in 2022. With a best finish of 33rd in his first event of the year at the Tournament of Champions in January, the 33-year-old will hope for a much-improved showing, and soon.
Charl Schwartzel, meanwhile, has struggled even more than Grace in 2022. The 2011 Masters champion has missed his last five cuts in a row. The only time he made it to the weekend this season, were his first two events of 2022 which he played on the DPWT.
Just exactly what the former world number six will produce this week, remains to be seen, and making the weekend could be a fair goal for the 37-year-old.
