Oosthuizen: “I feel like I’m playing in a British Open”
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Charl Schwartzel practices his chipping on No. 18 late Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Seth Jones

Good news if you’re Louis Oosthuizen: this course reminds you of the same major you won four years ago.

I caught up with  Oosthuizen, winner of the 2010 Open Championship, after he finished his practice round with Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel (pictured). This is what he had to say of the conditions Tuesday afternoon:

“Greens are fine now, but they’ve got to water it if they don’t want to lose it. You can see there’s already patches on the green that look like it’s burnt. It all depends on what they want out of it. But it’s some place tough now, I think it’s going to be, the way everything is shaped around the greens. It’s going to be really tough if they don’t wet them.”

(On the native areas) “It’s like being in a hazard, or in a bunker. You can be really screwed or you can have a fine (lie). It’s all a gamble.

You’ll see around the fairways as well, in the middle of the fairway it’s pretty green where the sprinklers are, and on the side it’s quite dead, so you can run off easily into the dead stuff.

All in all, great track, I feel like I’m playing in a British Open.”