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Johannesburg - Charl Schwartzel comes into this week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge chastened by the experience of having to deal with a golf swing that appears to have gone wrong for the first time in his career.
For a man with one of the cleanest swings in the game, it has been frustrating.
And with a top 10 in the Open Championship, two top 10s in World Golf Championship tournaments, two top 10s on the PGA Tour, and three on the European Tour in the past year, it might seem difficult to understand that frustration.
"Believe it or not I’ve been struggling with the golf swing," said Schwartzel on Wednesday.
"It’s caught up a bit and over the last few weeks I’ve been in the process of trying to slowly fix it up again and get it back to where it can deliver some more consistent golf shots."
The 2011 Masters champion became a father eight months ago, and that inevitably caused him to take his eye off the golf ball for a while.
"It’s a big change, but I’m loving it," he said.
"She’s eight months old and it’s really fantastic. And if I take everything into account it’s been a very decent year, but by my golfing standards it’s been poor. I had a stretch of weeks where I did well, but my consistency was very poor."
Schwartzel was hoping the home support would spur him on to some good scoring throughout the event.
"I’m hoping that being back here in South Africa and playing front of home crowds and being in a place I really like can spark something. Hopefully it can boost me and I’ll get something going."
