Louis Oosthuizen Escapes Weather, Seizes Lead at British Open

Louis Oosthuizen surprised the field at St. Andrews with another solid round of golf on Friday. Blessed with an early tee time, the South African took full advantage of a small window of mild weather to jump to the lead and make his first cut at the British Open.

Oosthuizen shot a 7-under 65 in Thursday's opening round, logging eight birdies with his only bogey coming at the notorious Road Hole (No. 17). On Friday, he dodged the weather to shoot a 5-under 67 to take a five-stroke lead over Mark Calcavecchia.

In the second round, he steadily charged through the front nine, carding three straight birdies on holes five, six and seven. After the turn, the wind picked up a bit, and he alternated two bogeys in between three more birdies on the first five holes of the back nine. Not to repeat Thursday's only blunder -- if a bogey at the arduous Road Hole can even be called that -- he saved par on 17 and birdied 18 for good measure.

"I'm very confident with the way I'm playing," he said. "It's probably the position anyone wants to be in playing a major on the weekend, and I think it's what we work to achieve, and I'm just very happy with the two rounds I put together."

On a day that was dominated by bad weather and swirling winds, Oosthuizen was lucky to play during the brief period of relative calm. In fact, after he finished his round, winds were clocked in at up to 41 mph before tournament officials finally suspended play for nearly an hour.

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But with two impressive rounds of play, the questions circulating around Oosthuizen mostly sound something like this: Who the heck is this guy?

Share Oosthuizen is certainly an unknown.

He turned pro in 2002 and has been playing on the European Tour since 2004, though he's logged just one victory at March's 2010 Open de Andalucia de Golf. This year's British Open is the first cut he's made at a major in his career.

In an interview with ESPN, Oosthuizen says the golfer he most looked up to growing up was Ernie Els. In some good ol' fashion St. Andrews irony, Els now looks up to his fellow South African on the British Open leaderboard.

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