Factfile
1984: Born August 31 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2000: Won the South African High School Championship. Part of the South African team that won the World Junior Team Championship, a team which included Louis Oosthuizen.
2001: Won the South African High School Championship for a second consecutive season. Was named South African Junior Golfer of the Year. Claimed the Transvaal Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
2002: Won the Freddie Tait Trophy for the leading amateur in the South African Open Championship, tying for 15th place. Won the Transvaal Amateur Stroke Play Championship for a second consecutive season. Won the Indian Amateur Open Championship and the English Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship. Represented South Africa in the Eisenhower Trophy. One of his team-members was again Oosthuizen. Turned professional aged 18 and claimed his European Tour card at the Qualifying School, aged 18 years and 81 days – the third youngest player to achieve a card through the Q-School.
2003: Named Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year.
2005: Aged 20 and three months won his maiden European Tour title when he captured the co-sanctioned Dunhill Championship in his native South Africa. His play-off victory over Neil Cheetham also placed him as the second youngest player to win an official Sunshine Tour event. Won the Sunshine Tour of Merit for the first time.
2006: With a victory at the season-ending Vodacom Tour Championship, Schwartzel broke into the world top 100 for the first time. Over the course of the following season, he would rise as high as 57th.
2007: Joined Mark McNulty to become just the second player to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit for three consecutive years. Won for the first time outside of South Africa, winning the Open de España.
2008: Won for a second time in Spain, winning the Madrid Masters.
2010: Won back-to-back tournaments, the Africa Open and the Joburg Open on his way to finishing eighth in The Race to Dubai; the first time he had finished inside the top ten.
2011: -Made a successful defence of the Joburg Open. Became the third South African to win the Masters Tournament, exactly 50 years to the day Gary Player claimed the first of his three titles at Augusta. Moved to a career-high of 11th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
