Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has congratulated South Africa's new golf champion Louis Oosthuizen after the 27-year-old won his first Major title on Sunday at the British Open at St Andrews.
Zuma said the win placed the country on the map among the sporting nations of the world.
Oosthuizen won the Open Golf Championship, one of the four Majors of the game, by a runaway margin of seven strokes.
"For a 27-year old, this is no small feat. Oosthuizen has written himself and our country into the history books by becoming the fourth South African, after Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els to win the British Open. A master stroke was winning it on the now international Nelson Mandela Day," said Zuma.
Zuma said it was among the greatest Madiba gifts that anybody has given the country, on the day when the country and the rest of the world celebrated the iconic life of former President Nelson Mandela,
Oosthuizen rose to victory beating household names including American Mark Calcavecchia, Britain's Paul Casey, Lee Westwood and Steven Tiley.
