Louis Oosthuizen is playing solid golf at the moment. He stands first on the leaderboard at the Zurich Classic 2021 with his teammate and fellow major winner Charl Schwartzel. Oosthuizen has surprisingly never won in the United States in his professional career, but the winless streak could vanish with a strong finish at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. 

Oosthuizen is currently cruising on a one-stroke lead at Zurich Classic 2021. He and Schwartzel have been excellent to watch. The duo capitalized on the four-ball format and gained strides with multiple rounds of 63 at TPC Louisiana. 

It has been a couple of years since Louis Oosthuizen won a tour event. Besides his titleless drought in the U.S., Oosthuizen hasn’t clinched a win since the 2018 South African Open. The 38-year-old was asked if he’s looking to emulate the likes of Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama by ending his title drought, to which he replied: 

“I mean, it would be great. I do think it’s going to be still tough tomorrow. We need to really play well. If you look at that leaderboard, there’s great players up there, especially with tomorrow’s format.”

“You know, I think we’ve got a good shot. We’re playing really well. We’re comfortable together. We just need to go do what we’ve been doing the last three days,” Oosthuizen mentioned. 

Louis Oosthuizen gives his take on the Zurich Classic format

There have been quite a few calls to change the Zurich Classic of New Orleans tournament structure. Currently, Rounds 1 and 3 are being played in the four-ball format, while the second and final rounds have the golfers playing the alternate-shot (foursome) format. 

A lot of people are unhappy with the four-ball format and are demanding a change. The claim is that the alternate-shot format is more exciting since the players have to work together with their teammates to close out holes. However, Louis Oosthuizen begs to differ: 

“Well, I think you’ll be taking two weeks off after it because you’ll be so stressed. Look, I think it’s great where you can catch up with better ball if you don’t have a great alternate-shot round. You can actually definitely catch up with better ball, and then you need to play well again the next day, so I think it’s really good the way the format is right now,” he mentioned. 

Louis Oosthuizen has certainly made his feelings clear with this statement. The South African and his teammate largely benefited from the four-ball format but shot a difficult 1-under par in the first alternate-shot round at TPC Louisiana. 

What is your take on this whole “Zurich Classic format should be changed,” saga? 

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