Retief Goosen

Retief Goosen was born on 3 February 1969 in Pietersburg (now Polokwane), South Africa. His father, Theo, a real estate agent and amateur golfer, introduced him to the game and raised him strictly, never making life easy or spoiling his children. In 1987, while golfing with a friend at Pietersburg Golf Club during light drizzle, Goosen was struck by lightning. The bolt knocked his friend off his feet; when he looked up, Goosen was lying on his back, his clothes burned off, his shoes disintegrated, and his underwear and watchband melted to his skin. He was rushed to help but recovered enough to play again a few weeks later. Goosen does not remember the incident, but his father saw his survival as a sign from God.

Goosen won the South African Amateur Championship in 1990 and turned professional that same year. On the Southern Africa Tour’s 1991–92 season, he won one event and finished fifth on the Order of Merit. He earned medalist honors at the European Tour’s Qualifying School in 1992, then played three seasons before claiming his first European Tour win in 1996 at the Slaley Hall Northumberland Challenge. He won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1997 and 1998 alongside Ernie Els and David Frost, and played in the 2000 Presidents Cup, scoring two points in his debut.

His breakthrough came at the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills. After a final-round battle with Mark Brooks and Stewart Cink, Goosen missed a two-foot putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff. He won the 18-hole playoff by two strokes the next day, shooting even-par 70 to Brooks’ 72. That summer he also won the Scottish Open wire-to-wire, finishing 2001 with three wins, 11 top-tens, the European Tour Order of Merit, and a career-high world ranking of 11th. He became the first non-European to win the Order of Merit and repeated the feat in 2002, a season that included an eight-stroke win at the Johnnie Walker Classic and a runner-up finish to Tiger Woods at the Masters. He won on the PGA Tour each year from 2001 to 2005, totaling six wins, and added a seventh in March 2009 at the Transitions Championship.

Goosen captured his second U.S. Open in 2004 at Shinnecock Hills, using 11 one-putts in the final round to win. That victory lifted him to a career-high world ranking of 3rd. He remained in the world top ten for more than 250 weeks between 2001 and 2007. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in the class of 2019 and now plays on the PGA Tour Champions.