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The clipped accent and animated tone on the other end of the phone was immediately recognizable.

Especially if you are a native South African.

Louis Oosthuizen completes the biggest margin of victory in the Open since Tiger Woods in 2000. (AP) Particularly if you know anything about golf in that nation.

Louis Oosthuizens phone rang before the final round of the British Open on Sunday morning, and the man on the other end of the line didnt need to identify himself. His voice, especially to a fellow native son, is unmistakable.

Gary Player, one of five men to have won the career Grand Slam and the most successful international player of all time, called the 27-year-old before he ventured onto the Old Course in what was unquestionably the biggest exam of his life.

“Have a good day, be patient, the crowd will be against you,” Player advised, according to Oosthuizens agent. “But dont worry, they were always against me, so use it as your motivation.” In retrospect, Players semi-paranoid pep talk was entirely unnecessary, because if all of the United Kingdom had conspired to pull against the easygoing South African, if not tackle him like it was a bruising rugby match, it wouldnt have mattered.

“He is a cool customer,” Charl Schwartzel said.

Oosthuizen iced English playing partner Paul Casey and everybody else at St. Andrews, proving unflappable in high winds and impervious to whatever else Mother Nature and the games ancient ghosts threw at him, winning by a commanding seven shots and shaking off every challenge with a smirk or a laugh.

Saturday morning, after sleeping on the 36-hole lead, Oosthuizen called over his friend Schwartzel, a pal from their junior-golf days in South Africa, shortly before Louis teed off in the final group of the day. He had some comedy video clips he was watching.

“He was showing me things on his iPhone,” said Schwartzel, who waited three hours to congratulate his buddy behind the 18th green. “He was laughing, and it was an hour before he teed off. Hes so relaxed.”

It didnt change much Sunday, when some might have expected his day to turn into a horror flick. Despite having made the cut at just one of his previous eight major championships, Oosthuizen gave the Old Course some gray hairs and turned a lengthy St. Andrews trend on its ear. The last player to win his first major at St. Andrews was the late Tony Lema in 1964, and the site has hosted seven British Opens since.

Instead of folding, he joined solid-gold St. Andrews winners like Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros. Do they blow vuvuzelas at golf tournaments? After this week, maybe they should, because it was a blowout all the way around.

He came within one of matching history. Woods won at St. Andrews by eight shots, a modern-era British Open record, during his stellar stretch of four consecutive major-championship wins in 2000. Oosthuizen flirted with that mark all day before he bogeyed the 17th.

Player, who was in St. Andrews all week, explained Sunday that his speech to Oosthuizen was based on his experiences at the 1961 Masters, when he battled Arnold Palmer and was a huge underdog.

“He was Americas hero and there were 15,000 people there, and one person, my wife, and my dog, pulling for me,” Player cracked.

By midday, the only thing left for anybody in the gallery was to root for the runners-up. American Jeff Overton, who this week finished T11 in his first trip to St. Andrews, played with the largely unknown Oosthuizen both Thursday and Friday. Somewhat comically, earlier in the week, when I asked Overton who hed been paired with, he drew a complete blank on the South Africans name.

Join the club. Seven days later, hes completely sold on the guys talent.

“Oh, yeah, he played great, hes a first-class guy, the whole deal,” Overton gushed. “He hits it straight, he hits it long, and he hit some good shots around the greens, some of those cutesy little wedges and chips you need to score around here.

“Really, hats off to the guy. It was awesome.”

Oosthuizen, a product of the South African Tour, had one victory on a major circuit in his career, and it came earlier this year at the Andalucian Open, a middle-tier event on the European Tour. This week, he played a lot like the thr Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els. Oosthuizen was a benefactor of Els junior golf program growing up, just like Schwartzel, the least gobsmacked player at what transpired this week.

“I am definitely not surprised, definitely not surprised,” said Schwartzel, who was a groomsman in Oosthuizens wedding. “He has always been capable of shooting low scores. Hes the type of guy when he gets going, he gets so much confidence.

“He is not a really jittery guy. He is a quite calm, you need to be calm when you are at a championship like this.”

He never even blinked at the complete annihilation of his name, either, which might be the most butchered surname in major-championship history. When asked, he articulated the correct pronunciation this week as West-hi-zin, but everybody seemed determined to mangle it as they saw fit, be it the BBC, ESPN or myriad other outlets broadcasting the worlds oldest major.

Can a guy become a household name when nobody can pronounce it? We might get to find out, based on the performance he put on this week, making the wind-blown Old Course seem like a pasture. Given that his parents are humble dairy farmer in South Africa, that analogy is certainly apt.

Countryman Trevor Immelman said Friday night that he was surprised only that it had taken so long for Oosthuizen to insert himself into the mix at a big event. Sunday, he was asked to expound on that sentiment.

“Well, hes that good,” shrugged Immelman, the 2008 Masters winner. “Because hes got all the shots. So it was really just a matter of time.”

He was proven dead right Sunday, because no matter what Casey threw at Oosthuizen, he dodged and countered. Sailing along with nary a worry, he made his first bogey in a 24-hole stretch after missing the eighth green, trimming the lead over Casey to three. Casey then bashed his tee ball on the short, par-4 ninth onto the green, but Oosthuizen didnt waver.

He walloped his drive onto the green, too. After Casey lagged to about seven feet for birdie, Oosthuizen slammed home a 40-footer, the biggest shot of the week, to reclaim a four-shot lead with nine to play. Casey triple-bogeyed the 12th and it was all over but the arithmetic and coronation march down the final hole.

The day marked the 92nd birthday of a South African icon, and last November, Sunday was declared the International Day of Nelson Mandela by the United Nations decree. The happy kid who answers to the nickname Shrek stole some thunder from the countrys legendary statesman.

He added his name to a list of heavyweights in his sport, too. This month, ran a story about the next great South African player: Schwartzel. Oosthuizen got there first.

“It has always been Ernie and Retief [Goosen] as of late,” Schwartzel said. “Its like a new generation coming and thats what we need to show, there are new youngsters coming through capable of winning big events and taking over … to find foot leverage.”

It became a boot in the Old Courses backside.