Andy DevaneyIf you’re wandering around the Old Course this week wondering who the next South African golfing prodigy might be, Louis Oosthuizen has already given you the answer: Aldrich Potgieter. The two are teeing it up at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and Oosthuizen is convinced the young gun has all the tools to win Majors.
“The good thing is he’s got everything in the game to compete in and win Majors. So it’s just a matter of finding the way that’s the best for him to do it,” said the 2010 Open champion, with the sort of calm certainty he usually saves for sinking putts that cost the rest of us three balls and a pint.
A reunion at St Andrews
For Oosthuizen, the week is more than just another spin around St Andrews. It’s a reunion with Potgieter, who once cut his teenage teeth at Oosthuizen’s Louis57 Junior Academy after returning from Australia.
“The first thing I noticed about Aldrich when he joined my academy is how level-headed he was. He was just a super nice young kid. And of course an unbelievable talent,” Oosthuizen said. “The length he hit it was just amazing as a 16- or 17-year-old when he got to the academy. I could immediately see he had massive potential.”
And potential has already turned into headlines. Potgieter was the second youngest winner of The Amateur at 17 in 2022, rewrote the Korn Ferry Tour record books as the youngest ever champion in 2024, and this season became the youngest South African to lift a PGA Tour trophy after clinching the Rocket Classic. Not bad for someone who still can’t rent a car in most countries.
Pressure and patience
“Everyone is going to put pressure on him,” Oosthuizen added. “Everyone always wants someone like that to immediately come through and be a superstar, but it will take time, especially in the Majors, to find the way for him to play those. He’s just got to go through the learning curve.”
According to Oosthuizen, the game Potgieter plays is already a different beast to what he grew up with. “The young guys coming through now play the game so differently to the way I grew up playing it.
Everything now is big drives. It’s difficult to compare him to anybody else. He’s definitely got such good control of his game and has an ability to hit a two iron past most golfers hitting driver. That gives him such a massive advantage. It will be very interesting to see how he moulds his game into being the best version of himself.”
Lessons learned the hard way
For Potgieter, the advice that’s stuck is simple but not easy: trust your own process.
“I think you have to go through some mistakes yourself to learn from it, and I think that’s kind of the biggest thing,” he said. “I had a really good year on the PGA Tour this year but I had to make a lot of mistakes.
I missed a lot of cuts. There’s a lot to learn with building a team and putting the right people around you. I think that was the biggest key for me that I had to learn from the start. But Louis has been really good to me, and I always have his number to ask for advice which is awesome.”
The bigger picture
This week’s Alfred Dunhill Links is full of storylines—Ryder Cup heroes, celebrity pairings, and the sort of Scottish weather that has you talking to your waterproofs. But keep an eye on Potgieter.
If Oosthuizen’s right—and history suggests he often is—golf’s next Major champion might just be walking the same fairways you are.
