Louis Oosthuizen plays it cool after bad start

The 28-year-old recovered from a potentially destructive bogey-bogey start to shoot a two-under-par 69 in the opening round at Congressional.

"It's all about just trying to be patient, knowing that there are birdies out there and that it's a US Open," said Oosthuizen after carding six birdies and four bogeys. "It's a tough tournament and there are definitely bogeys out there as well. You never want to get too far ahead of yourself or try to make miracle shots, especially early in the tournament.

"You just want to get yourself into a position to have a chance. So I'm quite happy with two under."

Oosthuizen crushed the best players in the game by seven strokes in the British Open at St Andrews after starting the tournament as a 200-1 outsider.

And his ice-cool performance yesterday offered further evidence that he is fully capable of claiming a second major title.

He said: "I feel confident with the game. It's just a matter of going out and getting the job done. I'm happy with my score.

"I didn't have a good start, but I had a good comeback after that. Some of the pins you can get to, and the greens were pretty fair today. It was good.

"I felt really comfortable, but it still was one or two bad shots you hit, you end up making a bogey and you had to hit it straight out because the rough was pretty thick."

Oosthuizen was especially pleased with his birdie at the difficult par-4 11th, where he almost holed out from the fairway with a four-iron from 205 yards. "Probably the best 4-iron I've ever hit," smiled the gap-toothed South African who is nicknamed Shrek. "I had to hit a low draw into the wind, pitch it in the middle of the green and it just released. It came out exactly the way I wanted it to."