Charl Schwartzel is a South African professional
golfer who plays on the European Tour and the
Sunshine Tour.
He had a dominant junior amateur career in South
Africa, also having won some amateur events
overseas. He played for his country in the 2002
Eisenhower Trophy. He then turned professional at
the age of eighteen, and following the path of many
other leading South African players he qualified for
the European Tour late that year. He was then the
second youngest South African golfer to do so after
Dale Hayes. He earned enough money to retain his
European Tour card in both 2003 and 2004.
In the 2004/05 season his career moved up a notch,
with victory in the Dunhill Championship, a leading
tournament in South Africa which is co-sanctioned by
the European Tour, and first place on the Sunshine
Tour's Order of Merit. In 2005 he finished 52nd on
the European Tour's Order of Merit, and in 2005-06
he again topped the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.
His win at the season ending Vodacom Tour
Championship took him into the top 100 in the
Official World Golf Rankings for the first time. His
form continued to improve in 2006 and he finished
the season placed 18th on the Order of Merit and
reached as high as 57th in the World Rankings. Every
higher ranked golfer at that time was at least two
years older than him.
He took first place on the Sunshine Tour Order of
Merit for the third consecutive year in 2007, and in
April 2007 he won the Open de Espaņa, beating Jyoti
Randhawa by one stroke, after a magnificent eagle at
the 543 yard par 5 sixteenth hole, and moved into
the world top 40.
In 2008 Schwartzel once again achieved success on
the European Tour, by securing victory at the Madrid
Masters.
