“This is a huge win for South Africa,” says Duncan Cruickshank, editor of the country’s biggest golfing magazine, Compleat Golfer. “We are completely over the moon. I don’t believe there was a single local golfer who was not glued to the television during the U.S. Open.”
Goosen, 32, who’s from Pietersburg, a small town in northern South Africa, is shy, which may be partly to blame for his former obscurity. He shuns the limelight and actually admits to low self-confidence, something Belgian sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout has greatly helped him overcome. His road to stardom has been rocky and includes breaking an arm in 1999 and a close shave with death at 17, when he was struck by lightning on a golf course. He emerged from the hospital after two months “much humbler and quieter,” his mother, Annetjie Goosen, said this week.
More of a factor has been playing for years in the shadow of countryman Ernie Els, who is ranked third in the world and won the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997. (Gary Player was the only other South African to achieve this, in 1965.) Goosen was ranked 44th in the world before Monday’s win shoved him up the ladder to 26th. “I’m just glad that now, hopefully, I’ll be known as one of South Africa’s best golfers and no longer as second best,” he said after the win.
What makes Goosen’s victory sweet for his compatriots is that South Africa now has more U.S. Open champions than any country outside America. It has won the tournament three times in the past eight years, has the third-most winners ever of grand-slam titles after the United States and Britain, and has won more major titles than all of continental Europe. This is amazing for a country with half a million golfers, 450 clubs and 320 active professional golfers; the U.S., by comparison, has nearly 30 million golfers and there are over 1,000 clubs in Florida alone.
Goosen took the 101st U.S. Open golf title in a playoff against Mark Brooks, earning the nickname “New Easy” for his coolness under pressure after missing the putt that should have won him the tournament on Sunday. Afterward, South African President Thabo Mbeki called to extend the country’s congratulations and commend his “nerves of steel” and his humility in accepting the title. “Retief returns home a champion and a positive role model of hope to our country’s youth,” he said.
This set the tone for an outpouring of honor on Goosen by local media. GOLDEN GOOSE JOINS THE GREATS OF S.A. GOLF was the headline in Cape Town’s Cape Times, which devoted half its front page to the win. Sports stars added their voices, too. National cricket captain Sean Pollock described the win as “simply brilliant. As sportsmen we have defining moments that shape the rest of our careers and our lives, and this is definitely his.” Springbok rugby captain Andre Vos added: “The way he kept his composure under that kind of pressure, after what had happened, was inspiring. It’s a fantastic achievement.”
Besides winning the U.S. Open, Goosen, who now resides in England, also ended Tiger Woods’s hopes of winning the season’s Grand Slam and America’s chances of a slam for the first time in 19 years. (Some think the victory will invigorate golf in South Africa in the same way Tiger Woods’s game has inspired young, especially black, Americans.)
But despite four major wins in recent years on the European Tour, doubts have been cast on Goosen’s ability to repeat this week’s triumph: could he be a one-time big winner, especially given his personality? South African golf experts think not. Television golf commentator Dale Hayes, the only South African to have won the European Order of Merit, says: “His victory did not surprise us. Time will tell, but local golfers have long said that Retief will be a star. I think he will win big-time for the next 10 years. He’s a wonderful golfer with patience, heart and courage under pressure.”
Goosen believes so, too. “I learned a lot about myself this week,” he said. “I know now I can handle the pressure. Before the week I wasn’t sure. There has always been doubt about my mental game. Now I’m looking forward to the big championships.”
But next time he will not have the advantage that Vanstiphout described this week, when he compared his client to a deadly African snake before the tournament. “The black mamba will strike. Nobody knows who Retief Goosen is. It will be a sneak attack. Nobody will see it coming,” he told golf writer Michael Vlismas. “Nobody did,” Vlismas said.
