For the second consecutive LIV Golf event, former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen will miss the tournament because of an ongoing back injury. Rising South African talent Martin Vorster has again been called up as Oosthuizen’s replacement after making a solid impression at LIV Golf UK two weeks ago.

The Southern Guards head to New York in seventh place in the season-long team standings after another top-10 finish in England. Dean Burmester and Branden Grace led the all-South African side there with tied-17th finishes.

Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. Photo: Southern Guards

The race for the individual championship is also gathering momentum, with Jon Rahm edging closer to securing a third successive LIV Golf Individual Championship. However, his lead over Bryson DeChambeau was cut by more than 100 points after LIV Golf UK, adding extra intrigue heading into this week’s event.

Burmester remains the highest-ranked South African in the individual championship standings, occupying 13th place, while Southern Guards are well positioned in seventh in the team standings.

Schwartzel believes the team can take plenty of positives from their performance in England, particularly Vorster’s impressive contribution under difficult circumstances.

“I thought the UK was a good event. Obviously we didn’t have our full team there with Louis being injured, but I’m very proud of Martin Vorster,” Schwartzel said.

“I thought he played extremely well. He was sort of thrown in the deep end, but I thought he did well.

“As an individual, I thought I actually played really solid the whole week. Unfortunately, a bad double bogey on the last hole left a sour taste, but it was one of my more solid weeks.

“I had four easy holes and sometimes that’s just how golf works. They were fairly easy holes, I gave myself good opportunities and hit some good shots. In golf you often find that once you make one or two birdies, you sort of just get on a roll, so that was nice.”

Dean Burmester. Photo: Southern Guards

Schwartzel also downplayed his brief stint as stand-in captain while Oosthuizen recovers, saying the role has always belonged to his fellow major champion.

“Louis asked me to be a stand-in captain. It was a nice opportunity and nice of him to do that, but it was just a stand-in thing. Louis is a good captain to us and I just hope his back gets better so that he can start playing again.”

Looking ahead to the challenge in New York, Schwartzel believes the demanding layout should suit Vorster’s powerful game.

Branden Grace. Photo: Southern Guards

“It’s a great golf course and it’s one that will also suit Martin. Martin’s a long hitter, it’s a very long golf course and it can be quite windy because it’s quite exposed.

“What I’ve found in the past is that it seems to suit the long hitters quite well, and you need to take advantage of the par-fives here, otherwise you can struggle.”

The opening round gets underway on Thursday evening at 19:05.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek sm