Charl Schwartzel of South Africa plays a shot into the second green during a practice round prior to the 2024 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 09, 2024 in Augusta, Georgia Charl Schwartzel and Erik van Rooyen will lead the South African charge at The Masters at Augusta this week. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images/AFP
Charl Schwartzel and Erik van Rooyen will lead the South African charge, when The Masters tees off at Augusta National on Thursday.
They will be joined by amateur Christo Lamprecht as he makes his Masters debut.
Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, now plies his trade on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series. As a result, his world ranking has dropped to 391st. This is since the LIV Tour has no world ranking status, as the former world number six only qualifies for the year’s first major as a past champion.
Having missed the cut at the International Series Oman on the Asian Tour in February, Schwartzel has not earned any world rankings points in 2024.
On the LIV Golf Tour, meanwhile, Schwartzel has played five events this season with just one top-10 when he finished third in Jeddah at the beginning of March. Since then Schwartzel has played the two following events in 10-over and three-over respectively.
All that means is that Schwartzel has little form coming into The Masters, and he will have to rely mostly on his good memories at Augusta. Aside from his win 13 years ago, he also finished tied for 10th in 2022 and solo third in 2017.
Like Schwartzel, Van Rooyen has little to suggest he will be a factor this week at The Masters. Van Rooyen missed the cut at The Players Championship in mid-March, and did not play again until last week’s Texas Open. There he also missed the cut by one with rounds of 70 and 76.
Van Rooyen will also be hoping his his third appearance goes better than his first two. In his debut in 2020, Van Rooyen withdrew after a first round 76. In his second trip to Augusta, he remained injury free but still missed the cut.
In contrast, the long-hitting Lamprecht will be hoping to soak up the experience in his debut Masters. It won’t be his major debut though, as he played in The Open Championship last year. In fact, he led after the first round on his way to finishing as the low amateur for the week.
He is also the top-ranked player in the men’s amateur rankings, and might well be eyeing another low-amateur award this week.
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