Player provided Oosthuizen with inspiration to meet his Open test

"We had a little chat in my home language Afrikaans," said the 27-year-old after his seven-shot win over Lee Westwood, with Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson joint third.

Casey was the one playing in the final group, but the Englishman could not match Oosthuizen's eagle at the ninth and then took a triple bogey seven on the 12th to fall from five behind to eight back.

Referring to nine-times major winner and compatriot Player's advice the new champion added: "He was saying just to stay calm out there, have a lot of fun and that the crowd was probably going to be on Paul's side.

"But then he told me the story when he played against Arnold Palmer when he won his first Masters. He said 'they wanted to throw stuff at me', but he was so focused on beating him in Augusta.

"It meant a lot him phoning me up. He's just a great guy."

Oosthuizen also praised Ernie Els, whose Foundation gave him his real start in golf, and wished happy birthday to Nelson Mandela on his 92nd birthday.

"That's amazing. I woke up this morning and I didn't know it was his birthday, but I saw it on the news.

"It felt a bit special really out there. When I walked down 18 I was thinking about his birthday and then my manager also gave me a list of things (for his winner's speech) and it was also in there.

"So it worked out. What he's done for our country is unbelievable."

Westwood hopes an elusive major win is less than a month away after maintaining his remarkably consistent run of form at St Andrews.

The European Ryder Cup stalwart's second place means he has now finished third, third, second, 16th and second in the last five majors, although he admitted he felt he was never going to overhaul Oosthuizen.

The world No 3's attentions will now turn to next month's

US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits after a final-round 70 saw him finish seven shots behind runaway winner and stablemate Oosthuizen.

"Whether I won the tournament was in the hands of other people," the 37-year-old said.

"Louis has obviously played great and thoroughly deserves to win so there's not even any real disappointment.

"If you get close and you lose, then there's disappointment, but I didn't even get within seven shots (yesterday).

"I played steadily. I played okay all week without really doing anything too special. I didn't make enough of the opportunities that my long game presented, really. I didn't putt well enough, my short game wasn't quite sharp enough.

"But all in all, I'm delighted with the week. I keep putting myself into contention in these major championships and keep finishing in the top three. It's not really to be sniffed at and complained about.

"That's all I'm going to try and do, just try and keep going as I am, keep working out, trying to improve little bits and hopefully one of these chances will turn into a trophy.

"I don't know if it's around the corner, but hopefully it's about three weeks away. I can't do much more than I'm already doing. I'm trying to improve all the time and I'm sticking myself in contention.

"I'm showing a lot of consistency but it's not quite been good enough. Sometimes I play well and someone just plays better."

A top-three finish has given Casey renewed hope after battling back from the worst spell of his career.

Eight months ago the Englishman was wrestling with significant doubts about whether he would ever be able to compete again at the highest level after a rib injury caused him to question his future.

He was forced to pull out of the fourth round of the HSBC Champions event in China because the problem was so bad.

It was then he began to wonder whether he would ever regain his game but his performance at St Andrews this week has done much to eradicate his concerns.

Starting the day four shots behind runaway champion Oosthuizen the 33-year-old knew it would take a considerable swing for him to overtake the South African.

A triple-bogey seven at the 12th put paid to any chance he had of catching his playing partner.

He eventually signed for a round of 75 which dropped him down to a share of third with Stenson and McIlroy.

Despite the disappointment that was encouragement enough after his injury nightmare.

"The scariest (time] was HSBC in China. I tore the muscles at WGC-Bridgestone event (in August), got to HSBC, thought I was ready to go and in the final round felt exactly the same pain I felt when I tore them at Bridgestone and had to withdraw," he said.

"I'll be honest, it was very scary. I was very worried about it.

"I thought 'is this something I'm going to be battling the rest of my career? Am I done? Will I ever be pain-free?'

"I had no idea and I was pretty down and upset about it.

"It's nearly a year on since a pretty down period for me and so I'm having a blast.

"As disappointed as I am with the way I played (yesterday), Louis was in a different league.

"That softens my disappointment slightly, because it was a tremendous performance.

"Hats off to him."