THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome to the media center Louis Oosthuizen, captain of Southern Guards GC. Thanks for joining us. A 4-under 67 today, also currently T2 at 7-under. Please take us through your round, how you felt about your performance today.
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it's always fun playing with Tyrrell and Jon. Started off pretty decent today and just felt in control, really. Tried to give myself as many birdie putts as possible. I felt I saw the greens really good today, the lines, and rolled the putter really good.
A few hiccups on a few holes. A stupid bogey on 9 and 14, but the rest was pretty solid.
Q. Each year we come here, the course seems like it's at the center of the story and the test it provides. How would you assess the conditions on how the course is playing this year compared to previous years?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think it's windier this year. Definitely after our third hole it was picking up very strongly. There's a lot of trouble around this golf course. You need to -- you need to just grind it out the whole time. There's not really one shot where you can just not really focus on. You need to just grind it out the whole way around.
It's probably the best greens we play all year. Greens are the best you'll ever see. It's nice to get to the green and feel like if you hit a good putt, it's going in.
Q. You mentioned playing with Rahm today. Are you guys just coming to grips with the fact that he's going to be up there on the leaderboard basically every week?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Pretty much (chuckling). Me and my caddie looked at the leaderboard last week, I think it was like the fourth hole in the second round and he was lying 25th on minus 5, and I said to Greg, well, that's strange. Then the next thing he shoots 8-under on the second round and he wins the tournament by three or four.
You just know he's going to be up there. He's just a world-class player. Playing with him today, seeing the shots he hit, seeing the focus he's got and the determination of hitting great shots at difficult times, it's just what a good player does.
Q. Has it been a challenge at all to not look ahead to next week?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: No, we're pretty busy with still lots of things that we're getting ready. Some of the staff already left to go and sort things out and get things ready.
I think right now we're all very excited. Just the fact that we're bringing this field to South Africa is a massive thing for our country. I think we're just excited to see LIV being in South Africa.
Obviously when you're on the golf course, you don't think about that, but I'm sure I'll be on my phone this afternoon trying to still sort out a few things.
Q. Was there a particular stretch of holes where you felt the momentum build towards your game?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Not really. The ninth hole was such a bad bogey, I feel, and then the tenth hole I had to make a good par. Made good birdie on 11 but then made a stupid bogey on 14.
It was just hanging on and giving myself opportunities. Standing on 16 tee box, I thought I'm going to have short iron in there, I'm going to have a mid iron on the 17th and probably an eagle opportunity maybe on 18. So I knew I could give myself chances, and made a good putt on 16. I missed a tee shot on 18 in the bunker, but I still gave myself a good chance for birdie and made that putt.
There are birdie opportunities out there, but there's a lot more holes that you can really mess up your whole round. But that's just the type of golf course it is.
Q. Over the last few years you've had top 7 finishes at Sentosa, Valderrama, Maridoe, Doral. What about your golf do you think gets better when you're playing harder golf courses?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Just scrambling and -- just really grinding it out. I like playing a tough golf course because I feel like half the field sort of has got the mentality of it's going to be very difficult and I'm going to struggle out there. I feel if you go out and really don't worry when you make a bogey because you feel a lot of guys in the field is making bogeys anyway, and just keep going.
This golf course is one of those where you obviously have to hit the ball pretty good, but if you make a birdie it's not the end of the world. You're not going to lose that many spots to the field.
I'm not a big lover of a golf course where if you don't shoot 6-under then you're going backwards. I enjoy this type of golf courses.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports