Charl Schwartzel triumph sets seal on golf's global constitution

It WAS only fitting that on the 50th anniversary of Gary Player becoming the first non-American player to win the Masters, he watched another South African, Charl Schwartzel, become the first champion at Augusta National to finish with four straight birdies.

Player wasted no time sending his congratulations - on Twitter, of course, in a sign of the times. In the hours after Schwartzel won against a leaderboard that featured players from every continent on which golf is played, the 26-year-old champion sent Player a reply: "Proud to follow your tradition!"

Player was an anomaly at the time he won, the first global player in a game that is more international than ever before. Schwartzel's victory on Sunday at the Masters was only the latest example of worldwide parity in golf.

For the first time since 1994 - and only the second since the Masters began in 1934 - non-American players hold the four major championships. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland won the US Open last summer at Pebble Beach, followed by Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa at the Open in St Andrews and Martin Kaymer of Germany at the PGA Championship. "The world is big," Schwartzel said after the third round. "America is big, but the world is bigger. There's more people. It might change again. There's just a bunch of good players out there from the European Tour and even Asia."

Schwartzel is not a late bloomer in the game. His father has a chicken farm in Vereeniging, near Pretoria, and he played golf three times a week. Schwartzel was a toddler when his father and Ernie Els played together in a team event they won at a local club in South Africa. He would caddie for his father in Wednesday and Saturday games, and they played together on Friday. "And that's how it started," Schwartzel said.

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As a teenager, he took part in Els' junior programme that travelled around the country. Another kid from the other side of the country, Oosthuizen, also was part of that programme. Oosthuizen hoisting a claret jug last summer at St Andrews did not go unnoticed.

"That was a huge inspiration," Schwartzel said. "We grew up together from a young age. We played every single team event, and we represented South Africa for so long. We basically are the best of mates. So we know where our level of golf is, and just to see him do it made me realise that it's possible."

Schwartzel confirmed his intention yesterday to join Oosthuizen at this year's Barclays Scottish Open.Also in the field will be Phil Mickelson, the player who fitted him with his green jacket, at Castle Stuart near Inverness for the event starting on 7 July.

"Yes, the Scottish Open is on my schedule and I'm looking forward to playing Castle Stuart," said Schwartzel, who along with Oosthuizen and McIlroy will be competing in this week's co-sanctioned Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.

South Africans are becoming well used to winning golf's majors and Trevor Immelman - the 2008 champion at Augusta - was quick to congratulate his countryman. "Going to be nice to have some South African food at the Champions Dinner again next year," he said, in reference to the tradition of the defending champion choosing the menu for the Masters champions' dinner.

It was 12:48am on Monday morning in South Africa when Schwartzel sealed his first major. Back home on the family farm near Vereeniging, a city just south of Johannesburg, Charl's father George watched every moment.

That's a big change for a man who describes himself as "a nervous wreck" every time his son plays, and who has previously gone to sleep to avoid the agonising tension of watching Charl in action. "I was going to take another pill but my wife wouldn't let me. We watched it all - I still haven't gone to bed," said George, nearly 12 hours after his son's triumph. The elder Schwartzel took a sleeping pill and went to bed when Charl finished second at the WGC-Cadillac Championship last year after battling with fellow South African Ernie Els down the stretch. "I told my family to wake me up when it was over," he said.

At the 2005 Alfred Dunhill Championship, played in December 2004, he napped under a tree on a deserted front nine at Leopard Creek Golf Club - and missed Charl claim his first European Tour title on the back nine. "I had to find somewhere to lie down. I couldn't take it. So, I found a quiet tree on the front nine."

It could have been the same on Sunday night, except for his wife Lizette's intervention. George, with whom Charl played his first nine holes at four years old, might have missed it all. "Dad was stressing again, he couldn't watch it," said Attie Schwartzel, Charl's younger brother and also a pro on South Africa's Sunshine Tour. "He's such a nervous wreck. He wanted to take another pill but Mom wouldn't let him."

By contrast, his 26-year-old son displayed the coolest of temperaments in the final round at Augusta National. "My daughter was crying about half an hour before he won, then I was crying when he won," George added. "My wife was happy but she wasn't crying. She never cries or gets too emotional. Charl has got her temperament, luckily."

Charl's easy manner was epitomised in his own description of Sunday's final hole, published on the Sunshine Tour website: "Driver up 18, 133 yards, pitching wedge to about 14 feet. Sounds pretty simple if you think about it like that."