World number five Ernie Els tipped Charl Schwartzel for a bright future after his fellow South African captured the Spanish Open title.
"This is Charl's second win on the European Tour and hopefully the start of really big things for him," Els told his official Web site (www.ernieels.com) on Monday.
"I was asked about Charl in an interview recently and this is what I said: 'He's still only a young guy and swings it well and hits the ball a long way. He just needs to keep getting more experience and a bit more consistency'."
The 22-year-old Schwartzel had Els's former caddie Ricci Roberts on his bag when he pipped Indian Jyoti Randhawa by one stroke at the national golf centre on the outskirts of Madrid on Sunday.
"Having Ricci on the bag is just superb," said Schwartzel. "He had caddied for Ernie for about 16 years and they both fancied a change and when I asked if he wanted to caddie for me I was very happy when he said 'yes'.
"He has so much experience and has done it all with something like 50 wins alongside Ernie so I just felt that experience helped give me an advantage. I had been playing well but I was just lacking that edge and I think Ricci gave me that."
It had been exactly 50 European Tour events since Schwartzel had broken through with victory in the 2005 Dunhill Championship in his native country.
"I have always enjoyed playing in Spain in the past and have done pretty well here so I always felt my first win outside South Africa might come here," he said.
Schwartzel's victory lifted him to sixth on Europe's order of merit and 40th in the world rankings.
del.icio.us
digg
reddit
stumbleupon
facebook
google
What are these 
Email This Page