ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - It was a surprise when Louis Oosthuizen won the Open Championship at St. Andrews five years ago. Him almost winning the Open Championship at St. Andrews again - not as suprising.

Oosthuizen, the 54-hole co-leader and playing in the last group, made birdie at the 72nd hole in regulation to get into a four-hole aggregate (Nos. 1, 2, 17, 18) playoff with Zach Johnson and Marc Leishman. It was his made putt at the last that even gave him a shot at the title, but his putter would fail him later.

The South African made birdie on his first playoff hole, par at the second, then missed a 5-foot par putt at 17 that left him trailing Johnson by one heading into the final hole.

"(Johnson) left the door open on 17, and I didn't take advantage of that," Oosthuizen said, referring to Johnson making bogey to trim his two-shot lead to just one.

Oosthuizen hit a great drive and pitch shot at 18, setting himself up with a 12-foot birdie opportunity. He missed while Johnson made par.

"I made good putts today. I made great putts coming in to be in the playoff, and you know, misread 17 and 18. I had two good putts there exactly where I wanted to, so there's not much more that I could have done on that."

This was Oosthuizen's third runner-up at a major and his second in a month (finished T-2 at Chambers Bay). He now has runner-ups in each major except the PGA Championship. But hey, that's only 25 days away!