SANDWICH, England — Louis Oosthuizen produced an amazing two months of golf, contending in three consecutive major championships and joining a short list of players to have a top-3 finish in three of them in a single year.
He simply has no hardware to show for it.
Oosthuizen, 38, the 2010 Open winner at St. Andrews, had the 54-hole lead at Royal St. George’s but failed to put together the round necessary to win his second major championship on Sunday.
Collin Morikawa, 24, shot a final-round 66 to win his second major championship, while Oosthuizen could manage just a 71 to finish in a tie for third with Jon Rahm, 4 shots back. Oosthuizen declined to speak after the round, but he congratulated the fans and Morikawa via Twitter.
“Well, I do know one thing, the fans @TheOpen are second (or third) to none. Thank you for the incredible support this week, and congrats to @collin_morikawa who played with class and grit today. Well done mate.”
On Saturday, when Oosthuizen held a 1-shot advantage over Morikawa, he spoke of his goal for Sunday’s final round.
“Go one better,” he said. “You know, finishing second isn’t great. So I will play my heart out tomorrow and see if I can lift the Claret Jug again.”
Oosthuizen held the lead after each of the first three rounds and set an Open 36-hole scoring record of 129. But it was not to be for him again.
Oosthuizen bogeyed the fourth hole to fall into a tie with Morikawa, and a big change occurred at the par-5 seventh, where Morikawa’s birdie coupled with Oosthuzien’s bogey meant a 2-shot advantage. Morikawa then birdied the eighth and ninth holes and found Jordan Spieth, who finished second, his main competition.
Since winning The Open, Oosthuizen has six runner-up finishes in major championships, including the PGA Championship in May, when he finished 2 shots behind Phil Mickelson, and last month’s U.S. Open, where he finished a stroke back of Rahm.