Louis Oosthuizen welcomes Southern Guard GC pressure as LIV fever hits SA

The all-South African team, rebranded from Stinger GC and made up of Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Dean Burmester, are gearing up for a maiden trip on the LIV tour to South Africa, where they will play 72 holes at Steyn City.

The 2010 Open Championship winner says their collective experience will come in handy but they will also learn from Australian team Ripper GC, who struggled to deliver on home soil for the first time in 2023.

"I think we're going to try and learn from what we saw with the Rippers down in Australia – the first season was tough for them, they had so much to do, media stuff, and if I remember correctly, they didn't really have much time as a team practicing together," said Oosthuizen.

"So that's something we're going to try and align so that we can actually get some nice time together, practicing and golfing to get us as good as we can for the week.

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"Absolutely there will be lots of pressure on us, we want to play well, but I think it's [about] dealing with that beforehand and knowing that we're going to have a little bit more pressure on us.

"We've all been in situations where we play under lots of pressure, so we have the experience to handle that, it's just a matter of getting the off-course things aligned so that we can be as good as we can on the week.

"Obviously, the tournament is massive for us to bring it to the country, to make sure the fans have a good time but also that the rest of the players have a good time there, to showcase the beautiful country, and we're just very excited to get there."

The SA leg will make its debut on 19 March and run through 22 March, when the overall individual and team winners will be decided.