Schwartzel wins 2011 US Masters

South African golf received a massive boost on Sunday 10 April 2011 when Charl Schwartzel became the third South African after Gary Player and Trevor Immelman to win the US Masters Golf Tournament and claim the coveted 'Green Jacket'.

Surprisingly Schwartzel won the tournament exactly 50 years to the day that Gary Player won the first of his three tournaments (1961, 1974, 1978). This win now gives South African's two US Masters titles in the last four years with Immelman winning in 2008. It also means that South African's currently hold two of the four 'Golf Majors' with Schwartsels' good friend Louis Oosthuizen in possession of 'The Open' (British) title that he won at St Andrews in Scotland 2010.

This win, the 7th of his career (6 on the European Tour), has seen Schwartzel jump from 29th to 11th in the World Golf Rankings and for the first time in a number of years Ernie Els has been ousted as South Africa's leading golfer having dropped to 13th.

Schwartzel was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and had a dominant junior amateur career, also winning some amateur events overseas. He was a product of the Ernie Els Golf Foundation at Fancourt along with Louis Oosthuizen before he turned professional at the age of 18, and following the path of many other leading South African players, he qualified for the European Tour later that year. He was the second youngest South African golfer to do so after Dale Hayes. He earned enough money to retain his European Tour card in both 2003 and 2004 and has done so until now.

Now that you know what fantastic golfers this country can produce you must realise that we have some world class golf courses. When next deciding on golfing vacations why not consider golf in South Africa. We at Journey Into Africa have a variety of guided and self-drive golf tours that we offer throughout our beautiful country. 

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