While Louis Oosthuizen has been away from golf longer than many fans thought prudent since the end of last year, he showed no signs of rust as he carded an opening four-under-par 67 on Thursday in the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona.
Oosthuizen made five birdies and a bogey in his first competitive round of 2022 to find himself in a share of seventh place as play was suspended for darkness. The lead is held by American Sahith Theegala at seven-under. He leads by one from Korea’s KH Lee, with Brooks Koepka, Canada’s Adam Hadwin, Harry Higgs and Scott Stallings in a share of third on five-under.
“We went to South Africa in December and actually got stuck 20 days longer because we got Covid,” Oosthuizen said after the opening round. “And so we were there for seven weeks, I didn’t even take my golf clubs. So I had a good break away from golf and came back and I’m ready for the season.
“It just sort of resets everything, you know, like especially I was quite tired at the end there, going into major weeks having chances to win and not pulling it off, that sort of drains you quite a bit. And I needed the break,” he said. “And four weeks would have been the trick for me, but seven weeks was nice.”
Branden Grace was in a share of 18th after an opening round of three-under-par 68. Garrick Higgo opened with a one-under 70, while Dylan Frittelli carded a two-over-par 73. South African turned Slovak Rory Sabbatini was on two-under-par.
