Louis Oosthuizen withdrew from the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on Monday, citing a back injury that also knocks him out of next week’s LIV Golf UK event.
With Oosthuizen out, fellow South African Aldrich Potgieter inherits his spot in the field as first alternate, despite finishing third in Monday’s qualifier just hours before the news broke.
Oosthuizen’s Back Injury Ends Open Bid
Oosthuizen broke the news himself on social media.
“Not the update I was hoping to share,” he wrote, according to Golf Monthly. “It’s incredibly disappointing to miss two events I always look forward to, but my priority now is to focus on my recovery and make sure I’m fully fit before returning to competition.”
The withdrawal pulls Oosthuizen out of both the 154th Open and the JCB-sponsored LIV Golf UK stop the following week. It marks the first time since 2008 he has skipped the Open outright, a run of 16 appearances broken now for just the second time. A single withdrawal in 2013 is the only other blemish on that streak.
Back trouble has followed Oosthuizen for years, flaring up enough in the past to force him out of tournaments mid-round or scratch him before they start. Now that injury history is playing out again, at the worst possible moment on the calendar.
Since joining LIV Golf in 2022, majors have been rough terrain for the South African. He has teed it up in five since the jump, making the cut just once, a tie for 60th at the 2022 PGA Championship. He has missed the cut in three of the last four Opens, a steep drop for a player who once treated major weekends as a given.
Oosthuizen’s 2010 Claret Jug
Oosthuizen, 43, won his lone major at the 2010 Open at St. Andrews, closing at 16-under 272 to beat Lee Westwood by seven strokes, according to The Open’s official player database. Only Tiger Woods, at eight shots in 2000, has won by a wider margin at the championship since 1913.
That St. Andrews performance launched a career defined by proximity to more majors without ever closing another one out. Oosthuizen finished runner-up at all four majors, including a playoff loss to Zach Johnson back at St. Andrews in 2015 that cost him a second Claret Jug on the same course where he first lifted it.
Potgieter’s promotion is the more consequential story for Royal Birkdale this week. The withdrawal costs the field an experienced, major-tested presence, but Oosthuizen has not seriously contended at an Open in years, and his exit does little to reshape the leaderboard picture. Potgieter, by contrast, arrives with fresh momentum off his qualifier run and a chance few alternates get at a major on a links course built for firm, fast conditions.
Oosthuizen now turns his attention to recovery, with no target return date announced. His next scheduled start on the LIV Golf calendar comes in New York in early August, assuming his back cooperates before then.
Why Did Former Open Champion Pull Out? Who Replaces Him at Birkdale?