Charl

Schwartzel

Schwartzel was born in Johannesburg and in 2000 was part of the South Africa team that won the World Junior Team Championship, along with his future LIV captain Louis Oosthuizen.

By the age of 18, Schwartzel was not only a powerful amateur in his own country, he had also won the 2002 English Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the Indian Amateur Championship.

He and Oosthuizen were teammates again for South Africa in the Eisenhower Trophy and Schwartzel capped an excellent year by turning professional and earning his European Tour card at Qualifying School at the first time of asking, aged just 18 years and 81 days.

In December 2004 Schwartzel bagged his first professional win at the Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

It is one of the main events on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and co-sanctioned by the European Tour (now DP World Tour) and although played in 2004 it was included as part of the 2005 season.

Schwartzel squeezed to victory, beating Neil Cheetham at a playoff hole, with former World No.1 Ernie Els tied in third.

Little did he realize that it was setting him on a path to winning the tournament a record four times, with further successes following in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

During that second win in 2012 he posted a tournament record low aggregate score of 264 for all four rounds, 24-under-par.

There were European Tour wins at the 2007 Open de España and the following year at the Madrid Masters and back-to-back wins at the Joburg Open in 2010 and 2011 and he earned his ticket for the 2011 PGA Tour.

Any performance that results in a golfer donning the famous green jacket at Augusta is special, but Schwartzel’s charge to top the leaderboard on the final day of the 2011 Masters was nothing short of spectacular.

On the Sunday morning, Rory McIlroy held a four-shot lead over a four-man chasing pack that comprised Schwartzel, Angel Cabrera, K J Choi and Jason Day.

McIlroy’s game disintegrated with a triple bogey on 10 and a double bogey on 12 for a final round 80.

There were to be eight different names at the top of the leaderboard at different stages during the day but the one that mattered most was Schwartzel.

Chasing his first major win, he chipped in for a birdie at the first hole then eagled the par-4 third.

As he approached the 15th hole Schwartzel was 10 under for the tournament and moved up a gear, sinking clutch putts at 15 and 16 for birdies at each hole to share the lead with Adam Scott at 12 under.

Schwartzel faced the flag on the 17th green with the chance of yet another birdie to take the outright lead and he swept the ball firmly into the hole to move 13 under.

Meanwhile on the 18th, Jason Day birdied to join Scott on 12 under to share the clubhouse lead.

Schwartzel approached the final hole knowing he simply needed to hold par but went one better, draining a fourth consecutive birdie putt to finish 14 under and win Augusta’s showpiece event by two strokes.

It was the first time in the Masters’ 75-year history that the winner had ended his final round with four straight birdies, and it was achieved 50 years to the day that Gary Player had become the first South African to win the prestigious Major.

Schwartzel achieved a highest placing of sixth in the official golf world ranking and his career earnings from 251 events and two wins on the PGA Tour are listed as $20,958,573, while his DP World Tour record reads 340 tournaments with 11 wins.

It had taken another playoff hole at the 2016 Valspar Championship to secure his second PGA Tour win, Bill Haas having to settle for the runner-up spot.

In May 2022 he announced he was leaving the PGA Tour and would be joining LIV Golf from week one – and what an entrance he made.

Schwartzel became the first ever individual winner in the LIV Golf Invitational Series with that victory in the inaugural event in London in June 2022.

He played seven tournaments that year and in addition to the LIV Golf London win he secured two further top-10 finishes to claim fifth place in the end of season standings.

LIV declared his earnings for 2022 to be $8,135,000, comprising $6,010,000 from individual prize money and $2,125,000 from Stinger’s successful showings.

The first year of the newly launched LIV Golf League was tougher going, Schwartzel sitting 38th in the 2023 season standings though there was a team win for Stinger to celebrate in Tulsa.

In 2024, Schwartzel was firing again and came agonisingly close to a win with a T2 in Jeddah and T3 in Adelaide, ending the season in 21st place.

The LIV Golf community came together when Charl’s wife Rosalind was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in early 2024 at the age of 39.

During the build up to LIV Golf Adelaide in April last year, Charl and his South African Stinger teammates, Louis Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester and Branden Grace, as well as their caddies and all the team management, shaved their hair in a show of support and encouragement for Ros.

The couple had begun dating in 2008 and were married in 2010 and have a daughter and a son.

As well as owning a house in Manchester, England, and a family home in Vereeniging, South Africa, they once had a 1300-square-foot Palm Beach mansion on the edge of Old Palm Golf Club’s course which they sold in 2021.

Charl is a qualified helicopter pilot and in 2009 bought a Cessna Stationair TC with monogrammed tail number ZS-SCH which he uses in Veereniging.

Although 5ft 11in in height, Schwartzel weighs 160 pounds which is 10 pounds under the recommended flying weight for his chopper, so he has had to carry some sand in the cockpit as ballast.

Greg Hearmon was Charl Schwartzel’s caddie for that memorable Masters win in 2011 while Heath Holt had taken over for the 2022 Masters, where Schwartzel was T2 after the second round.

Holt was also by his side for that first LIV Golf London victory.

It was an all-family affair at the Masters last year as his brother Adrian Schwartzel was acting as bag man and even wife Ros had a stint carrying his clubs during the Pro Am ahead of the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

Schwartzel has a much-admired golf swing, an orthodox set up with a wide stance, and he is able to get his arms higher than most in the backswing.

He loads his trail side almost effortlessly with some weight through his right leg, which is flexed at the knee, helping lower half stability and keeping his head behind the ball.

From there his arms drop down in the same line they ascended and with strong, low body movement – and head still behind the ball – it allows him the spine tilt to get some real power into the drive.

Charl was at one time a PXG staff player but by the 2022 Honda Classic he was playing with a mixed bag of brands for his clubs.

Having toyed with a TaylorMade SIM2 and Ping G425 drivers, he settled on a Titleist TSi3 driver (A1 position, 9 degrees) with a Mitsubishi Tensei AV RAW Blue 75 TX shaft.

For the fairway his 3-wood was a TaylorMade SIM2 Max (15 degrees) with a Mitsubishi Kai’Li Blue 70 TX shaft.

Schwartzel had to employ some home-made tactics with his irons, another mixed bunch, with a Mizuno MP-20 (2-iron), TaylorMade P7MC (3) and the remainder being Miura MB 001 prototypes (4-PW).

For the Miura irons, Schwartzel used his drill press at home to make some holes in the back cavities to get their weight down.

The shafts were Project X LS 130 7.0 (2 and 3-irons) and True Temper Dynamic Gold 120 X100 (4-PW).

His two wedges were Artisan Prototypes (54 and 60-degrees) which are hand-crafted and made to order, with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts.

His putter was a L.A.B Golf MEZZ.1 (70-degree, 35 inches, E9 swing weight) with an LA Golf shaft and Clear Golf Tour Green balls.

Charl is as simple as its sounds, the start of Charles without the ‘es’.

Schwartzel is difficult to get wrong unless you have a German accent. It’s ‘Shwort-sel’ – nice and easy.