Oosthuizen won the 139th Open at St. Andrew’s in 2010, becoming the fourth South African to lift the Claret Jug after Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els. For the second year running, Els has opted not to compete. Among other South Africans set to tee off at Royal Portrush on Thursday are Dylan Naidoo, who won the 2025 Investec South Africa Open, and will be making his debut at golf’s oldest championship, Aldrich Potgieter who became the second youngest ever winner of The Amateur Championship at the age of 17 and is now 20. Thriston Lawrence, who challenged for the top honours at Royal Troon last year but finished fourth, just three strokes behind the winner Xander Schauffele, is also part of the field. Darren Fichardt will be making his eighth appearance while Daniel Van Tonder will be playing for the first time since 2020. He finished number one on the Sunshine Tour order of merit last season. Dean Burmester returns trying to better his 19th place finish last year. He claimed the first qualifying place at Royal Cinque Ports in the final qualification tournaments. Shaun Norris, who held the club house lead briefly on his major debut at The Open in 2017 and qualified through his position on the DP World Tour rankings is also part of the field. Justin Walters’ only previous Open Championship appearance was in 2014 and is back after making it through the final qualifier at Burnham & Berrow. For Newman, who won the 2025 Africa Amateur Championship in February, it will be the perfect opportunity to gain valuable experience on the big stage. As part of the buildup statistics, there have been two previous stagings of The Open at Royal Portrush, held 68 years apart in 1951 and 2019. Max Faulkner took home the Claret Jug in 1951 and home hero Shane Lowry won it in 2019. In the previous 152 Opens there have been 90 different Champion Golfers of the Year.