Louis Oosthuizen

Lodewicus Theodorus “Louis” Oosthuizen, 37, and Erik van Rooyen, 30, are among the seven golfers from South Africa participating in the 2020 United States Open Championship. The others are Shaun Norris, 38, Justin Harding, 34, Branden Grace, 32, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 26, and J.C. Ritchie, 26.

Born in Mossel Bay, South Africa on October 19, 1982, Oosthuizen has been playing golf professionally since 2002. On December 9, 2018, he won the South African Open with Romain Langasque, 25, of France as the runner-up.

Van Rooyen, who was born in Bellville, South Africa on February 21, 1990, attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA and turned professional in 2013. He won the Hainan Open and the Eye of Africa PGA Championship in 2017 and the Turkish Airlines Open and the Scandinavian Masters in 2019.

The 2020 U.S. Open will take place at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, USA from September 17–20, 2020. Including the seven South African golfers, 144 players will compete in the 120th edition of the annual open national championship of golf in the U.S., which was established in 1895.

South Africa has three U.S. Open champions. Gary Player won in 1965, Ernie Els won in 1994 and 1997 and Retief Goosen was the champion in 2001 and 2004.

Including South Africa and the U.S., 27 countries from six continents are represented. The others are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile,  Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Slovakia,  South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand.

Due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 144-player field consists entirely of exempt players. Professional golfers Daniel Chopra, 46, of Sweden and Anthony Kang, 47, of South Korea will co-host the golf tournament with former professional cricketer Jason de la Peña, 47, of England live on FOX Sports 2 from September 18-21, 2020.

The U.S. Open champions in the past five years were from the U.S. Jordan Spieth, 27, and Dustin “DJ” Johnson, 36, won in 2015 and 2016, respectively, Brooks Koepka, 30, won in 2017 and in 2018 and Gary Woodland, 36, won in 2019.