Oosthuizen sings praises of star SA youngster

Louis Oosthuizen believes Aldrich Potgieter has everything he needs to win majors, and says he’s excited to see how the career of a young star who was a member of his junior academy continues to develop on the world stage.

Oosthuizen and Potgieter are both part of a healthy South African contingent competing in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at The Home of Golf in St Andrews.

And speaking at the Old Course on Tuesday, Oosthuizen gave a resounding endorsement of Potgieter’s potential.

“The good thing is he’s got everything in the game to compete in and win majors. So it’s just a matter of finding the way that’s the best for him to do it,” said the 2010 Open champion.

This week is somewhat of a reunion for the two golfers, with Potgieter having joined Oosthuizen’s Louis 57 Junior Academy as a teenager when he returned to South Africa from Australia.

LEVEL-HEADED

“The first thing I noticed about Aldrich when he joined my academy is how level-headed he was. He was just a super nice young kid. And of course an unbelievable talent. The length he hit it was just amazing as a 16- or 17-year-old when he got to the academy. I could immediately see he had massive potential.”

It wasn’t long afterwards that Potgieter became the second youngest winner of The Amateur at the age of 17 in 2022. In 2024 became the youngest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history at the age of 19 years, four month and 11 days with his triumph in The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic.

And then this year he made further history when he became the youngest South African winner on the PGA Tour with his victory in the Rocket Classic.

“Everyone is going to put pressure on him,” said Oosthuizen. “Everyone always wants someone like that to immediately come through and be a superstar, but it will take time, especially in the Majors, to find the way for him to play those. He’s just got to go through the learning curve.”

BIG DRIVES

“The young guys coming through now play the game so differently to the way I grew up playing it. Everything now is big drives. It’s difficult to compare him to anybody else.

"He’s definitely got such good control of his game and has an ability to hit a two iron past most golfers hitting driver. That gives him such a massive advantage.

“It will be very interesting to see how he moulds his game into being the best version of himself.”

TRUST YOURSELF

Potgieter said Oosthuizen’s single biggest piece of advice to him has been to just trust his own process.

“I think you have to go through some mistakes yourself to learn from it, and I think that’s kind of the biggest thing. I had a really good year on the PGA Tour this year but I had to make a lot of mistakes. I missed a lot of cuts. There’s a lot to learn with building a team and putting the right people around you.

“I think that was the biggest key for me that I had to learn from the start. But Louis has been really good to me, and I always have his number to ask for advice which is awesome.”