Moments after sinking his final putt at the 18th green and winning golf's preeminent major championship, the British Open, by a dominant seven strokes, 27-year-old South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen was embraced by his lovely wife, Nel-Mare, and their seven-month old daughter, Jana. A bright and shining star had risen from 15 to 18 July in Saint Andrews, Scotland, the birthplace of golf. His margin of victory was historic, eclipsing an international field that included the best golfers in the world. Who is this fine young man, and what is the heavenly blueprint with which he has been blessed?

According to his mother, Mienie Oosthuizen of Gouritsmond, Louis was born "just after 11 in the morning" on 19 October 1982 in Mossel Bay, South Africa. In his rare nativity, the astrologer finds a Wedge pattern, with all of the planets contained within a 77-degree sector of the Zodiac. Louis was born at the once-in-35-year Saturn-Pluto conjunction, with his natal Sun and Venus forming an elegant Libra stellium with that powerful outer planet configuration. A Mars-Neptune conjunction in Sagittarius, symbolizing an idealized athlete, forms multiple sextiles to his Libran planets. His horoscope is rounded out by the Moon and Jupiter in the passionate sign of Scorpio. Your correspondent, with the help of an Afrikaans colleague, astrologer Griet Odendaal of Rooi Els, had contacted Louis' parents for his time of birth, and the birth chart has been rectified to 11:02 AM.

 

Legend of Astrological Glyphs

One observes a full head of hair on young Mr Oosthuizen and a large open face, along with a robust and jovial countenance, qualities normally attributable to the sign of Leo, rather than to a Capricorn Ascendant. On closer inspection, the astute astrologer sees that Louis was indeed born in the Leo dwadashamsa of the Taurus decan of Capricorn (17.5 to 20 degrees), giving him an exalted Saturn as the ruler of the chart, yet with graceful Venus and the royal Sun as his sub-rulers.

He is blessed with a lovely and devoted wife, thanks to a Moon-Jupiter conjunction and a dignified Venus in Libra. At the British Open, South African Sunshine Golf Tour commissioner, Gareth Tindall, described the qualities Oosthuizen displayed during his tournament victory as, honesty, humility, respect, passion, and discipline. One appreciates how the virtues of self-discipline and controlled passion can be the heavenly gifts of an exalted Saturn and Pluto both in tight conjunction with the Sun.

Two challenges with which Louis has struggled while honing his golf game are mental focus and the drive to win. The former can be understood through his weakly aspected Mercury, which forms a lone octile to the Moon. A sports psychologist in England, where he lives part time when competing on the European Golf Tour, has advised him to put a red dot on his golf glove. This visual cue allows him to focus in a Zen-like state as he steadies his mind for each golf shot.

The latter challenge can be seen through an absence of square aspects in the nativity. A Wedge pattern horoscope such as this, with all planets contained within 77 degrees, has no two heavenly bodies as far as 90 degrees apart in order to form that self-motivating aspect. Consequently, Louis will have to find his desire to win through dedicating his efforts to wife and daughter.

Those, like Louis, with a Bundle pattern can become self-contained individuals with a focused personality. They can resourcefully concentrate their energy upon a limited area of life. Usually, there is a lack of perspective, but also the capacity to develop their resources to the utmost. Astrologers learned that, upon collecting his British Open winners check in the amount of $1.3 million, Louis bought a customized John Deere tractor with a child's seat for his daughter. It is being delivered this Wednesday to his farm next door to his parent's property in Gouritsmond and he has said he cannot wait to drive it on his spread of land.

Louis Oosthuizen's humility and modesty are a refreshing change in the world of golf, which has been thrown into turmoil since last November by the revelations of multiple marital infidelities and sexual addiction by the world's number one golfer, Tiger Woods. It is as if the sport has been longing for a new champion to emerge, one with the virtuous qualities of faithfulness, modesty, kindness, and respect for the fans and the media. Louis, raised on a farm in rural South Africa, has all of these virtues.

When someone like Louis possesses a Wedge, or Bundle pattern, the concentrated energy of his horoscope seeks release in the far midpoint of the unoccupied area. For Louis, the midpoint axis of Mercury and Neptune, the bookend planets of his Wedge pattern, lies in 16 Taurus-Scorpio and becomes the all important vortex of manifestation. Remarkably, when relocating his nativity to Saint Andrews, Scotland, these degrees are rising and setting!

 

 

If part of the purpose of young Mr Oosthuizen's rise to golfing prominence is to replace the coarseness and vulgarity of Tiger Wood's fall from grace with a new champion who possesses refinement, elegance, and humility as a person, along with superb golfing skills, then the astrologer would except some kind of connection between their two horoscopes. Sure enough, when casting the Davison Time-Space chart for the date, time and location midway between their two births, the precise degree and minute of the Saint Andrews relocated chart's Descendant rises in the Davison chart!

 

 

A week before Louis' stunning seven stroke victory at the British Open on July 18th, there was a solar eclipse in 19 Cancer 23, in partile conjunction with one of his angles, the Descendant. This angle in astrology governs one's marriage and Louis has said in interviews with the media that since becoming a husband and a father, he has evolved into a better person. With that eclipse landing on his 7th house cusp, the astrologer sees how his wife has become a spiritual source of power for his golf game. In the following tri-wheel, his secondary progressions, in the middle wheel, are calculated for the date of The Open victory.

 

 

When happiness and success grace one's life, the planets Venus and Jupiter are invariably involved in some way. The astrologer sees that Louis' progressed Midheaven has come to 03 Scorpio, the midpoint of his benefics. The transit True North Node has been stationary in 11 Capricorn for the entire month of July, and was forming an exact conjunction with his progressed exalted Mars as he won the British Open. After working hard for the last fifteen years on his golf game, Saturn has now arrived at the once-in-30-year conjunction with his natal Midheaven - assuring him that professional prominence and prestige are here to stay.

Louis had a progressed New Moon in January, right as his daughter, Jana, was born. Any man with the Sun conjunct Saturn, the ruling planet of fatherhood, is incomplete as a person until he has children. Louis' life has become more fulfilled through his marriage and the birth of his child and he can now go on to win many more championships.

One observes that Oosthuizen has arrived at a progressed conjunction of Mercury and Jupiter. This aspect is helping to make his attitude about winning more optimistic, and also helping to eradicate any negative self-talk still affecting his thoughts. With this heavenly alignment of the two mental planets, developing the habit of positive thinking is the key to success.

When a person is catapulted to global fame, there must be a part of the horoscope that serves as a precursor to this notoriety. For example, this can be indicated by a progression or transit over a pre-natal eclipse degree, or by a major outer planet conjunction having conjoined an angle sometime earlier in the life. For Louis, it was the once-in-172-year conjunction of Uranus and Neptune exactly conjoining his Ascendant at the age of ten, the year that he started playing golf.

 

 

At the time of this rare conjunction aligning with his Capricorn Ascendant, the transit North Node, symbolizing the future, was exactly conjunct his natal Mars in 20 Sagittarius, the planetary ruler of sporting champions. Through interviews with Louis, and from media articles published about him since he won the British Open, astrologers have learned about the key events in his life and about his childhood spent as the son of a farmer in rural South Africa. 2002 was an important year for Oosthuizen, as he turned pro at the age of 19, signed with ISM, a sports management team, and later that year shot a record low 57 at Mossel Bay Country Club during a practice round, 15 strokes under par!

 

 

As Louis was turning pro in 2002 and signing onto professional management, his progressed Sun was conjunct Jupiter and his progressed Midheaven was conjunct Saturn, both aspects perfecting within a month of one another in June and July. When he shot his now legendary 57, sealing his reputation as a golfing prodigy, his progressed MC had come to a conjunction with his Sun. Additionally that year, his natal Saturn-Pluto conjunction had progressed to exactitude.

In 2007, the year Louis got married, his progressed Moon first conjoined natal Venus, and then arrived at a conjunction with his natal Sun. He and his wife had gone to grade school together in Albertinia, and the story told by his mother-in-law is that he always had his eye on Nel-Mare as his sweetheart, even as the two of them were apart for many years before marrying.

After an up and down professional golfing career that has taught him humility and resolve, this March, just after his progressed Moon return, he won his first European Tour event at the Open de Andalucia in Spain. Having missed the cut in several previous major championships, including this year's Masters and U.S. Open, his victory at the British Open stunned the world and opened the door to further success. His progressed Sun has arrived at the conjunction with his natal Moon this year and Louis is finally experiencing the hard earned unification of his inner and outer selves.

Louis also played in the Nordea Scandinavian Masters at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club just outside Stockholm in Sweden the weekend after he won the British Open, finishing tied for fourth with an eight-under-par score of 280. After completing this tournament, he is heading home to South Africa to receive a hero's welcome from his family and friends. He has made his country proud, and Oosthuizen joins Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els as South African winners of the famous Claret Jug.

© 2010 Robert P. Blaschke

This article was subsequently published in the Astrological Journal (Volume 53 - Number 1) of the Astrological Association of Great Britain.

 

 

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