Louis Oosthuizen

How are things happening in terms of travelling with your family? Do they come with you to the tournaments? Or do you have a base in the UK?

I’m actually moving to the States now, to Florida next year. So I’ll be based there. It makes the travelling so much easier. A lot of tournaments are co-sanctioned with the European Tour, so after the US season I’ll go east to get my numbers up and I always try in December/January to be here in South Africa. But I’ll try to get four weeks off or something.

I’ll travel with my family until the kids start going to school. When they start going to school, we probably won’t do that many on the road. If they are at that stage, I can just fly back to Florida on a Sunday night or something.

You must have heard how the American commentators just love your golf swing. Are you quite a technical player or are you more of a feel player?

Yeah, I would say I’m more of a feel player. There are a few things I always work on that give me good rhythm and put my swing in good places. Other than that, I grew up playing on windy courses where you need to just feel the shot. That’s why I love playing links golf, where it’s windy and you’ve got to see completely different shots.

In terms of how well South African golfers are doing around the globe, is it just a matter of success breeding success? What’s the secret?

It’s great to see Branden [Grace], George [Coetzee], Thomas [Aiken] and everyone coming through. I just think we are such a sporting country. We love our sports. In South Africa, the biggest advantage we have is great weather. You can play 12 months of the year, whereas in Europe a lot of guys need to go to Dubai just to practise.

Also, I think the Sunshine Tour does great work getting the guys ready for the European or US Tours. I remember Branden was playing well and couldn’t break through and he got the win in South Africa [in the Coca-Cola Charity Championship] and he went on to have one of the best seasons on the European Tour by a ‘rookie’. And Ernie winning The Open surprised a lot of people, but they don’t realise how much he still practices. Whenever I go to his house, he is always on the range practicing. He’s worked so hard and he deserved to win another Major. He proved a lot of people wrong. It’s great to see him still having so much success.

What goals have you set for yourself for next year and the not-too-distant future?

I’d like to see myself climbing up the world rankings. I would like to get in the top 10 and stay there. And I want to be competitive in Majors. If I can have close to the season I had this year, I will put myself in positions to win. That will be great.

Obviously Majors are important. We try to get our game perfect for Majors, which is not easy. So Majors and World Ranking – that’s what’s keeping me going. It would be great climbing the World Ranking, and I wouldn’t mind lifting a few more trophies!