Anton

Karlsson

The Swede was the first-round leader at the Belgian Knockout just two starts ago, finishing T18, and today’s fast start puts him T2 on the live leaderboard and just one off pacesetter Victor Perez. Karlsson, who finished runner-up at the Qatar Masters in March, played here for the first and only time two years ago and fired 73-72-75-73 for T58. He knocked six shots off his Valderrama best with six birdies against a lone bogey this morning. Starting with five pars, Karlsson made his move with gains at 6, 8 and 9. He also opened his back nine with five pars and then connected a trio of circles at 15, 16 and 17. A walk-off bogey at 18 was a slight disappointment but hardly spoiled an excellent day’s work.

The top 32 players from each half of the draw advance to the second phase of the tournament where six rounds of nine-hole knockout strokeplay face the remaining 64. Karlsson won the late/early wave by two shots from Justin Walters, with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano a further shot back in third. The Swede kept up his charge at Rinkven International today with four birdies against a lone bogey at his final hole. “It was good and, in a way, quite similar to yesterday,” he said. “I still struggled off the tee but I have been hitting the irons and wedges really well. I made a few less putts today which kept the score not on the same level as yesterday but overall, I am really happy. Obviously this week on how far I have played so far it would have been nice to keep playing the (18-hole) stroke play way, but we have always been prepared for the change over the weekend.”

A first 18 hole lead on the European Tour for the Swede playing his second season on the circuit. He will hope that his only previous top five in such circumstances is not a bad omen. He was T5 in the World Super 6 Perth, a similar format to this week of course, but tumbled out at the cut with a second round 76. On Thursday he started from the tenth tee and was electric soon afterwards, circling the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th. He gave a shot back at the first but then went birdie-eagle-birdie from the fourth. He has a T2 this season, at the Qatar Masters, but sharing it with eight other players has cost him: He ranks only 111th in the Race to Dubai so making the most of this start matters.

The Swede was 157th on the Race to Dubai ahead of this week and so his career best effort on the main tour will be a huge boost, but the fact he shared second with eight players will somewhat hurt the points boost. Nonetheless, it’s a fine effort, betters his previous high of T12 in this year’s Vic Open (another blustery venue), take note for the future, it backs up his T13 here last year and provides confidence ahead of a return to Kenya next week, where he top tenned this time last year. In this final lap at Doha GC he ticked the first, seventh and tenth holes early on, but bogeys at the 13th and 14th hurt his hopes of the win. He confirmed the strong result, however, with red numbers at the 16th and 18th.

This latest quick start puts him just three back from R1 leaders Miguel Tabuena and Kristoffer Reitan. Back in October, the World No. 467 came through Q School for the second time in three seasons after losing his card in 2017 and began his campaign with T45 in Hong Kong. He missed the cut in Mauritius but opened 2019 with a top 12 in Melbourne last week that represented his best finish in an admittedly brief European Tour career to date. The 25-year-old was only even par thru’ the first third of his round at Lake Karrinyup today after trading a circle at 1 with a bogey at 6 but made his move with back-to-back red numbers at 7 and 8 before connecting three more from Nos. 13-15. A walk-off bogey was a slight frustration but this was another good day Down Under for the promising Swede.

A calm final round 4-under-par 68, his sixth sub-72 lap of the week, earned the 23-year-old Swede the seventh card at Q School. Prior to that he had performed with some style at last year’s Scottish Challenge (maybe a pointer: he said the heathland Spey Valley suited his eye). At one stage he was eyeing up a 59 before settling for a 62 on his way to T7, the first of four top seven finishes that earned him 37th in the Challenge Tour rankings. Made a solid start on European Tour debut with a round one 68 at Leopard Creek but woke up next morning and found out how tough it is: he pegged 78 and returned home early. Yet to lift a trophy in his pro career, his best in four years a second on the third tier Nordic League.

Right now, that’s just two shots behind clubhouse leader Darren Fichardt and good enough for T6 on the live leaderboard. The Swede, who came through Q School last winter, is making just his fourth European Tour start but has already made gamers take note with T13 in the Qatar Masters. Today, he made an early move by taking just three swings on the par-5 2nd hole but couldn’t build on that and played his next nine holes in 1-over after a bogey at 7 and eight pars. Karlsson hit the birdie trail on the back nine with red circles at 12, 13 and 15 but suffered a walk-off bogey to slip two behind. He’ll now head back to the East Course for the two weekend rounds. The good news is that he shot a 66 there in round one.