Karlsson, Oosthuizen making TOUR debuts at Northern Trust

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- Robert Karlsson may not exactly be herpetophobic, but he isn't a big fan of alligators and snakes like the ones you can find roaming around in Florida.

"And I'm not talking about their sports teams," he said with a chuckle.

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So when the 41-year-old PGA TOUR rookie was looking for a U.S. base of operations, he chose Charlotte, N.C., instead. He liked the well-connected airport, the cosmopolitan feel of the city and the way the foliage reminded him of his native Sweden. Friendships he developed while playing in the Quail Hollow Championship helped, too.

Maybe there was a little bit of destiny working, too. After the Verizon Heritage a year ago, Karlsson was going to take his children back to the family's apartment in Monaco so they could return to school -- but Mother Nature had other plans.

"The Icelandic volcano had the eruption and they couldn't fly back, so we got stuck here," he recalled. "During that time ... we drove from Hilton Head up to Charlotte, and we found a house and everything, and it went pretty quickly. There we go."

But any decision to play both the PGA TOUR and European Tour goes beyond jet lag and juggling schedules, mapping out new golf courses and booking hotels. For Karlsson, who makes his debut as a TOUR member this week at the Northern Trust Open, it meant completely uprooting his wife and two children.

Karlsson's daughter Thea made him feel even better about that decision just last week, though. "Are we ever moving back to Monaco?" the 9-year-old asked her dad. When he told her no, Thea responded "Good." New friends apparently have hastened the adjustment period.

Louis Oosthuizen has also taken up membership on the PGA TOUR this year, as has his good friend Charl Schwartzel. Apparently not worried about reptilian creatures, he has decided on Old Palm, Fla., as his home base -- which is oddly enough where Karlsson went to practice during an unseasonably bitter N.C. winter

The two South Africans and the Swede were eligible to join the PGA TOUR by virtue of their position on last year's non-member earnings list -- money that would have put them inside the TOUR's all-exempt top 125.

"It's going to be a lot of flying around," Oosthuizen said. "But I need to give myself that opportunity, and I should be able to pull it off."

The reigning British Open champ has wanted to play in the United States since he was a little boy like his mentor Ernie Els. His first major championship gives Oosthuizen the luxury of a five-year TOUR exemption, as well as entry into some of the game's most high-profile events.

"I just felt like with all the exemptions I've got now, it's a great time to do it," Oosthuizen said. "I want to give myself a few years just to see if I like it, if I enjoy it."

Karlsson actually went to q-school twice, once in 1991 and again in 1995 when he reached the final stage but failed to make what was then a 72-hole cut. "But both of those years, I wasn't really prepared for it," said Karlsson, who has gone on to win 11 times on the European Tour.

"Back then I thought the step was bigger, so I didn't really handle it that well. But I'm looking forward to it now, and I've showed myself that I'm good enough to play here, and I've done well in both majors and individual events. Now it doesn't feel like such a big step."

Not to mention, Karlsson wanted to play in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup -- which offers a $10 million bonus to the winner -- but only TOUR members are eligible for that competition. And waiting for sponsor's exemptions wasn't fun, either, so now the Swede can plan his schedule.

"I'm in quite a late stage in my career," Karlsson said. "... I've wanted to play on the U.S. TOUR at some stage, and now I have the possibility and I will live here with the family. It felt like quite a natural step.

Making decision to play both Tours a little easier for Karlsson and Oosthuizen is the fact that the four majors and three of the World Golf Championships count toward the membership requirements on each -- i.e., 15 events for the PGA TOUR and 13 on the European Tour. Not to mention, many international players like to play the week prior to majors and World Golf Championships, which adds to their total in the States.

Karlsson, for example, played 11 events on the PGA TOUR last year and posted a career-high finish when he lost to Lee Westwood in a playoff at the St. Jude Classic. The 28-year-old Oosthuizen, though, has never played more than six events in a single year on TOUR so he'll have more to add in what is a Presidents Cup year.

Karlsson, who won the European Tour's season-ending Dubai World Championship last year, is looking at his schedule in blocks in 2011. He's posted top-10s in his first two events on the European Tour in Bahrain and Qatar, and he now he plans to be in the United States through THE PLAYERS Championship. Then it's back to Europe for a few before he returns to America for the FedEx St. Jude Classic the week prior to the U.S. Open.

The Swede has played an international schedule for more than two decades now. He estimates he played in 15 different countries last year; in 2011 it will be more like 10. His travel schedule will really intensify in the late fall with European Tour events in Asia and his title defense at the Dubai World Championship.

"There's only once this year I'm playing back to back weeks ... on different sides of the Atlantic and there's one time I can't avoid it, and it's from (THE PLAYERS) to the (Volvo) World Match Play in Spain," Karlsson said. "But I wanted to play both of those. But I'm just trying to avoid those kind of trips. At the end of the day I think it looks very, very good for my travel schedule this year."