When it comes to the chasing of birdies, no golfer has proved more tomcat-like than Charl Schwartzel of late.
The last six weeks have seen a collection of high-profile tournaments, with the US Open followed by the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and then the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Across these three events, Schwartzel registered 45 birdies, which is more than dual winner Dustin Johnson managed in the same trio of tournaments. Now heading to the US PGA Championship, it is time for the South African to limit his mistakes.
The South African has been a model of consistency since the end of May in terms of his six consecutive top-25 finishes, but just the solitary top 10 in this period has been caused by too many dropped shots.
Schwartzel knows how to win a major following his victory in the 2011 Masters and 50/1 looks a big price that he reduces his error count to win the US PGA Championship.
Interestingly, he also ranked in a share of top spot at the Bridgestone in terms of finding greens in regulation. This is significant as the Firestone course which hosted that event poses a very similar challenge to the venue of the final major of the year – Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey.
They are both fairly long par-70 layouts, which have been influenced by the same course designer.
In terms of the most recent majors, there is a statistic that has become relatively commonplace when narrowing down the shortlist of winners. All of the last 16 trophy lifters were ranked inside the top 30 of the official golf world rankings at the time.
Schwartzel currently finds himself in 23rd position in that particular list.
Alternatively, Schwartzel can be backed at 2/1 to shoot the lowest opening-round score of this threeball, which also includes Justin Rose and Patrick Reed.
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