Branden Grace had the picture of his good friend Louis Oosthuizen standing on the Swilcan Bridge with the Open Championship trophy in his mind all week and emulated him by winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the Old Course on Sunday.
The 24-year-old became the first South African winner in 12 years of the event, which is run by the South African-owned luxury good company, and it is his fourth victory on the circuit this year.
Grace had to come through the Qualifying School to win his right to play on the European Tour this year and is the first graduate from that exacting examination to win four times the following season.
But it was the inspiration of Oosthuizen, another protg of Open champion Ernie Els and Grace’s house-mate in St Andrews this week, that brought the latest talent from the Cape to victory.
”Even this morning when I got up, I checked on the internet for that picture of Louis standing on the Swilcan Bridge with the Open trophy and I had it in my mind all week,” he said.
”It’s an awesome feeling to be able to stand on the bridge with this trophy. I know it’s not the Claret Jug maybe that’s for the future but this will do pretty well for now.”
Having opened with his record-equalling 60 at Kingsbarns on Thursday, Grace completed his gun-to-tape victory with a two-under 70 on the Old Course on Sunday.
Grace finished on a 22-under aggregate score of 266, taking the £491,000 first prize and moving up to third on the Race To Dubai. He is now only £400,000 behind leader Rory McIlroy going into the final straight of the season and declared his aim is now to win the European Tour top prize.
”There’s some more big prize funds coming up and there’s no reason why I can’t make up that gap if I’m playing as well as now and properly prepared,” he said.
Grace finished two ahead of Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, who he led by four shots going into the final round.
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However, any idea Grace would have a similar procession to victory as his friend and countryman Oosthuizen had on the Sunday of the Open two years ago were extinguished by his own tentative front nine and the Dane’s bolder approach.
The South African began with a nerve-settling birdie but Olesen started to reel him in with a birdie at the long fifth, then made a big leap around the loop with two birdies at the eighth and ninth.
Grace, who was getting less and less assured with the putter, dropped a shot at the seventh and then three-stabbed the ninth, having driven the green.
A three-putt bogey at the par-three 11th, again not giving up much to par despite the largely docile conditions, meant Grace’s four-shot lead was gone and not only was Olesen tied but Sweden’s Alex Noren and Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher had a sniff of the title.
At that moment, Grace turned to caddie Zack Rasego, who had carried for Oosthuizen in 2010.
”I was struggling with the pace and the reads on the greens all day to that point. So after that three-putt I called Zack in to help me read a few,” he said.
At the very moment he might have faltered, the extra pair of eyes helped Grace stiffen his backbone and his putting stroke.
As Olesen made a hash of the short par-four 12th from the rough, Grace holed from 10ft for a key birdie, then followed with another from 12 ft at the 13th and suddenly he had breathing space again.
The key came at the long 14th, however, where Grace did not quite carry the ridge at the front of the green with his rescue approach while Olesen’s iron just crept on to the main plateau of the green.
Both came up well short with their approach putts but Olesen missed from 10ft while Grace holed from 15ft for a three-shot lead.
Olesen then bogeyed the 15th and although the Dane rallied to birdie two of the last three and make Grace sweat a little when his eagle putt from the Valley of Sin stopped just short of the pin, the young South African sunk his birdie putt from five feet to confirm his two-shot win.