18 July 2010 18:01 GMT

As the Championship moved into its closing stages, with the luxury of a massive and seemingly now unassailable eight-shot lead over his nearest rival, Oosthuizen continued to do exactly what he was required to do, which was to hit the fairways, find the greens and par the remaining holes, and the greatest prize in golf would be his.

Not so the rest of the players, who realizing that the main prize was now well beyond their grasp, were refocusing their efforts on finishing as high up the leaderboard as possible. There were three men locked together in battle, with Rory McIlroy already in the clubhouse with an eight under par total for the championship.

Lee Westwood was also finishing strongly, thanks to successive birdies at the 13th and 14th. And Martin Kaymer, playing up ahead of Westwood, got to nine under at the 15th, only to drop back with a bogey at the very next hole. While the wind had temporarily been taken out of Paul Casey’s sails, as the result of a triple bogey at the 12th that had now dropped him back into what appears to be the battle for second place, against Westwood and Kaymer.

Westwood’s hopes were dented by giving a shot back to par at the 17th. But then both Stenson and Kaymer still had to get past the hole that has caused the field so much heartache over the course of the Championship. It was predicted before the start of The Open that the Road Hole would cost someone dear on the last day. And it cost Kaymer a bogey five that dropped him back to eight under once again.

As a result of his textbook par on the 17th and with Casey still to negotiate the Road Hole, Henrik Stenson was still in with a chance of grabbing a share of second place. But while Casey, Stenson and Kaymer were jockeying for position, Lee Westwood had come up on the rails and a birdie at the last gave him a nine under par total, and made him the player to beat for the runner up prize.

Bringing up the rear, the Champion-elect had continued to sail serenely on by, registering pars from the 13th to the 16th. Playing partner Casey had steadied the ship with pars from the 12, 13th and 14th but a dropped shot at the difficult 15th dropped him back into that scrap for second place. Sadly, Kaymer bowed out of this battle at the final hole with his third successive bogie. And when Stenson could only par the last it meant that Casey was the only player who could challenge Westwood.

Casey managed to get past the 17th without dropping a shot but sadly he couldn’t find the birdie at the last that would have enabled him to share second place with Westwood.

Just to prove he was human Oosthuizen dropped a shot at the 17th but a simple par at the 72nd hole gave him a well earned victory.