Louis Oosthuizen Forced to pull out of Johannesburg Open with Bizarre Injury
South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen has announced he will not be playing in his home country’s Johannesburg Open when it starts today.
The 2010 Open winner was forced to withdraw early yesterday morning after injuring his fingers in a totally freak accident at the airport. Catching his digits in between two airport trollies, Oosthuizen is now bruised and unable to grip his clubs. Telling reporters on Wednesday, “This morning is even worse than it was yesterday, so I tried to grip a golf club but there’s no way I can go to my grip position.”
The 35-year-old said he made the decision to pull out now so that another golfer would have the opportunity to play the entire tournament.
“It’s a bit of an unfortunate one, but I don’t want to tee off Thursday and play one hole or a few shots and then withdraw after taking someone’s spot. You know, I just can’t do that. So, I’m going to have to withdraw from this one.”
The Johannesburg Open tees off today from the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club. Oosthuizen was a favourite to win but now will be forced to watch from the sidelines as players including Dylan Frittelli, George Coetzee and Darren Fichardt battle it out at the European Tour’s final event of 2017.
