Charl stalks Leopard

11 December 2014 - 02:36 By Liam del Carme
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BOGEY MAN: After a lacklustre year Charl Schwartzel is hoping to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship for a third time at Leopard Creek Golf Club in Malelane, Mpumalanga
BOGEY MAN: After a lacklustre year Charl Schwartzel is hoping to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship for a third time at Leopard Creek Golf Club in Malelane, Mpumalanga
Image: LUKE WALKER/GALLO IMAGES

Prevailing form might not be his biggest ally, but Charl Schwartzel rarely changes his spots on the Leopard Creek course, perched on the banks of the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga.

Schwartzel will be going for a hat-trick of wins when the Alfred Dunhill Championship tees off today, and, though red-hot form isn't exactly coursing through his veins, he is hoping the muscle memory of three wins and two runner-up spots (by a single stroke on both occasions) will take him to the top again.

If Schwartzel, the highest-ranked player in the field, triumphs, he will become only the sixth player in European Tour history to pull off a third consecutive win.

"Actually I haven't even thought about it," he said. "It will be nice. I haven't been playing great for a while now. This whole year really.

"It will be a nice feat to accomplish but I think I'm a long way from that at this stage. In the past I've come here not playing my best, but then somehow something sparks."

Schwartzel was happy to report that he saw several leopards yesterday, but birdies, too, have come his way of late. It's the bogeys that have blighted his scoring.

"I make enough birdies to actually win. I accumulated nearly 20 last week, but the mistakes are so many. That's just from the golf swing. That is not being consistent enough. Those are the things I have to keep working at."

Though he has grafted in that regard his mind might have had other priorities. This year fatherhood has brought fresh perspective. "Until you have a child you don't realise how good it is. Golfing-wise it hasn't been a good year, but my personal life has been fantastic. There is a little bit more to life than golf."

Schwartzel, who finished a disappointing joint 14th at the Nedbank Challenge, a whopping 19 shots off the pace, isn't brimming with confidence. But neither is Louis Oosthuizen, the highest-placed South African, along with Tim Clark, in joint seventh place at Sun City. "Hopefully this week I can forget about what the course has done to me and just play," Oosthuizen said.

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