{"id":9679,"date":"2012-04-06T03:51:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T01:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/golf-schwartzel-makes-steady-start-to-masters-defence\/"},"modified":"2012-04-06T03:51:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T01:51:36","slug":"golf-schwartzel-makes-steady-start-to-masters-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-schwartzel-makes-steady-start-to-masters-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Schwartzel makes steady start to Masters defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Julian Linden<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 5<\/span> (Reuters) – Charl Schwartzel made
\na solid start to his Masters defence at Augusta National on
\nThursday but was unable to conjure up the same magic that won
\nhim the green jacket a year ago.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

On a day when most players struggled to shoot low scores,
\nthe South African finished with an even-par 72 and said he was
\nrelieved to have avoided any major damage.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I felt good out there. I hit some really good shots,” said
\nSchwartzel. “My golf swing felt like I was in control of it and
\nit could have easily been a two or three-under-par day.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike last year when he started his final round by chipping
\nin for a birdie at the first then making birdies on each of the
\nlast four holes to clinch his first major title by two shots,
\nthe 27 year old was battling just to hold par on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

He salvaged a par on the first hole and played the last four
\nin one-over-par, making bogey on the 15th and 18th holes and a
\nbirdie at 17.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Disappointing finish, bogey out of the middle of the
\nfairway,” he grumbled. “I wish I played like Sunday last year.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

While Schwartzel struggled at the end, his good friend and
\ncompatriot Louis Oosthuizen finished strongly to charge up the
\nleaderboard and into a share of second place.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The runaway winner of the 2010 British Open made birdies at
\nfour of the last five holes to sign for a four-under-par 68.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Julian Linden AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 5 (Reuters) – Charl Schwartzel made a solid start to his Masters defence at Augusta National on Thursday but was unable to conjure up the same magic that won him the green jacket a year ago. On a day when most players struggled to shoot low scores, the South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}