Retief Goosen

Retief Goosen (born 3 February 1969) is a South African professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions.

In 1987, Goosen was struck by lightning.

He was golfing with his friend, Henri Potgieter, at Pietersburg Golf Club.

They were playing through a small drizzle when lightning struck Goosen.

Potgieter was knocked from his feet and when he stood back up saw Retief lying on the ground on his back.

In 1990, Goosen won the South African Amateur Championship, the leading amateur competition in his country.

In 1990, Goosen turned professional.

Gossen was medalist at the European Tour's Qualifying School in 1992 and enjoyed success on the Tour between 1992 and 2000, but it was not until 2001 that he made his name in America with a U.S. Open win on a very tough Southern Hills Country Club golf course.

After winning medalist at the European Tour's Q-School in 1992, Goosen played 3 seasons before winning his first event in 1996 at the Slaley Hall Northumberland Challenge.

He nearly lost his chance at victory after three putting from 12 feet, missing a two-foot putt on the final green, but managed to recover to make a playoff with the 1996 PGA Championship winner Mark Brooks.

Goosen dominated the next day's 18-hole playoff, eventually winning by two strokes.

Later that summer, he completed his second wire-to-wire victory of the year at The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

Goosen won four times on the European Tour between 1996 and 2000, before his breakthrough year in the United States with his 2001 U.S. Open win.

He won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1997 and 1998 with Ernie Els and David Frost.

Goosen played in the 2000 Presidents Cup where the U.S. team won, but Goosen scored 2 points in total in his 1st appearance in the event.

He has won two U.S. Opens, in 2001 and 2004, headed the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002, and was in the top ten of the world rankings for over 250 weeks between 2001 and 2007.

He finished 2001 with three wins, 11 top-tens and the European Tour Order of Merit and followed it up with another in 2002.

He also became the first non-European to win the Order of Merit.

After his third win of the 2001 season, he rose to a career-high 11th in the world rankings.

He won on the PGA Tour each year from 2001 to 2005 with six wins, and he added a seventh win in March 2009 at the Transitions Championship.

Two weeks after the U.S. Open win of 2001, Goosen won on the European Tour at The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

This win secured Goosen the Player of the Month for June 2001 on the European Tour.

He added another win late in the year and won the European Tour Order of Merit and the Player of the Year on the European Tour.

Goosen was in contention in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills Country Club in 2001 all week, and battled Mark Brooks and Stewart Cink during the final round.

In 2002, he won on both the PGA Tour and European Tour for the second straight year, a feat that would be repeated for three more years.

He won a second U.S. Open in 2004, where he had 11 one-putts in the final round at a tough test at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

He then rose to his career high world ranking position of 3rd.

Potgieter retold the story to Golf World, "I wanted to know his reaction. What I did see was his golf clubs and his golf bag. Then I saw him lying on his back. His tongue was down his throat and his eyes were backward, and he was breathing weird. He had no clothes on; they'd been burned from his body. I remember picking up his spectacles. I didn't know what to do. It looked like he was dead. I was screaming for help. Fortunately, there were guys teeing off on the 12th hole. They came running toward us. From then on, I can't remember much. They picked him up and put him in a car."

Goosen's shoes had disintegrated from his feet, his underwear and watch band had melted to his body.

He retains a scar on his wrist from the incident.

He was unable to put his shoes on for weeks afterwards.

He recovered enough to grab another set of clubs and take up the game a few weeks later.

Goosen doesn't remember the events that happened, but his father took his son's survival as a sign from God of good things to come.

He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, class of 2019.

Goosen was born in Pietersburg (now Polokwane), South Africa.

He is the son of Theo Goosen, a local real estate agent and amateur golfer who introduced the game of golf to Retief at an early age.

Theo took a strict approach to parenting.

"Look, I never made life easy for my kids," said Theo.

"We never spoiled them. We never pleasurized them."

Goosen admits that his father put pressure on him.