Joakim

Lagergren

The 29-year-old Swede, who started the final round four strokes behind eventual winner Danny Willett, carded a 6-under 66 on Sunday at St. Andrews to finish at 16-under 272, two strokes behind Willett. “It’s been great -- obviously love this place, love this format. Just been enjoying myself, and really pushed for it today, but yesterday I ended up short,” said Lagergren, referring to a bogey on his final hole during a 5-under 67 at Kingsbarns in the third round. On the season, he’s made eight cuts in 20 European Tour starts and stands 48th in the Race to Dubai rankings. Lagergren has one career ET title, winning the 2018 Rocco Forte Sicilian Open in a playoff over Mike Lorenzo-Vera with a birdie on the first extra hole. He’s set to make his sixth appearance in the Acciona Open de Espana this week in Madrid, where he’s made two cuts in five starts with a best finishing being T-21 in 2013.

The Swede’s early forays on the European Tour in 2012 and 2013 were a struggle and he returned to the second tier where, despite a win in Northern Ireland, he didn’t regain his card until he visited Q School. Since then he’s collected 13 top ten finishes, neatly spread across five and a bit seasons during which he’s retained his playing rights relatively safely and collected a first win in the 2018 Sicilian Open. The course that week, the seaside, blustery and links-like Verdura, fits within a pattern because he’s a three-time top four finisher in the Dunhill Links Championship and lost a play-off at Doha in the Qatar Masters (a pointer for potential links winners). This season he was T21 in Abu Dhabi and T38 in Qatar, but three missed cuts in-between leave him 105th on the Race to Dubai.

The Swede has pegged it up four times at the track and flopped in three of them, missing the cut in 2012, 2015 and 2018. However, in 2016 he opened with two 66s and added a pair of weekend 68s to take T17. It’s also worth noting he shot a Friday 66 when crashing out at halfway in 2015 so Lagergren can certainly score at the course. With so many good links players holding strong records at Dom Pedro, Lagergren’s stellar results in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (his third place there last month was his third top four in the Scottish event) suggests the potential is there for a big finish. The other big pointer is that strong putting is required this week and he’s ranked in the top four for Putting Average in each of his last two starts.

Lagergren had tournament form of 4-4-12-MC ahead of his fifth appearance and was in good form too. He certainly gave gamers a great run today and his week included a 62 in the second round at Kingsbarns. In Sunday’s closer on the Old Course, he made birdies at 1, 5 and 11 before wobbling with bogeys at 12 and 13. The Swede reignited his title challenge with a hat-trick of red circles form Nos. 14-16 but bogeyed 17. He said: “Putting myself in that position, to be able to win here Sunday afternoon, you always want to take that. But to finish off the way I did there, bogey 17, par 18, would have needed two better there to get into a playoff. But it’s such a tough second shot there on 17. I did all I can do. Just didn’t end up as I thought.” He’s set to climb to 65th on the Race to Dubai after banking his biggest purse of the season.

The Swede has a superb record in this event with a pair of fourths and a T12 in the last four years. He’ll look to improve it even further in Sunday’s closer at St Andrews and hopefully secure his second European Tour win. Today at the Old Course, he started sedately with seven pars and a birdie (No. 5) before giving his round real impetus via eagle-2 on the short par-4 9th. But, coming home, he found red numbers difficult to nail and had just one birdie (12) against one bogey (14) before picking up a shot on the Old Course’s iconic closing hole. He’ll need to splash more red numbers tomorrow but a 62 on day two at Kingsbarns shows he can shoot the lights out.

The World No. 265 has two fourths and a tied 12th in his four starts at this event and he’s on track for another big finish after today’s bogey-free lap. His red numbers came in four pairs (10-11, 16-17, 2-3 and 8-9) while he added further circles at 14 and 5. With play almost over he’s just one back from leader Matthew Jordan. When asked what clicked today, Lagergren said: “Pretty much everything, I would say. Hitting it straight off the tee and iron shots were solid. So holed a few putts there, as well. Just good overall.” Today’s low one followed a 69 at Carnoustie. He now faces back-to-back rounds at St Andrews.

The Swede, who dwells down at 153rd on the Race to Dubai, had to settle for a 71 on day one at The International after three late bogeys. Today, he dropped just a single shot, at the 12th, and surrounded it with red circles. Going out, he followed six opening pars with birdies at 7 and 8 while on his second nine Lagergren ticked 10, 11, 13, 15 and 18. Right now, he’s three off the lead of James Morrison, who has one hole to finish. The stats show that Lagergren pelted 16 GIR in round two and has hit 31 out of 36 so far.

The Swede is a first-timer at the course but has enjoyed his last two trips to Germany, finishing T21 and T14 at the BMW International Open, and can give it a decent thump off the tee which will help at this week’s lengthy track which has wide fairways. It took Lagergren until his eighth start of the season before making a cut but, until a halfway exit in last week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland (course didn’t really suit), he’d cashed in six of his previous seven. The best of those came earlier this month at his home Scandinavian Invitation where he opened with 63 and closed with 65 for T10.

The Swede finished T34 at the Hills Golf & Sports Club in Gothenburg 12 months ago, a week in which he was competent enough, but he ranked no better than 20th in any category. However in round two here he ranked better than that in all of them. When he signed his card he was top ten for Putts per Round and Putt Average, and in the teens for all other categories. Such solidity allowed him to atone for three errors on his card. The first came at the 11th (he started on the back nine), the second was a nasty bogey-6 at the third and then he dropped another shot at the seventh. To compensate he ticked the 18th, fourth, eighth and ninth. A winner last year he need fear his Race to Dubai ranking of 174th a little less than normal, but he is on track to crack the top 100 if he maintains this form through the weekend.

That’s just one swing back from pacesetter Wade Ormsby and puts him T2 on the leaderboard alongside Alexander Levy. While Sweden’s big guns, Henrik Stenson and Alex Noren, had to settle for 1-under 69 and 2-over 72 respectively, Lagergren ended the day as the only home player inside the top ten. He did so with a steady flow of birdies. His first red numbers came at 2 and 3 before another at 7 helped him turn in 33. The best scores were made on the back nine today and Lagergren picked up further shots at 11, 14, 16 and 18 to be home in 30. The World No. 350 was T34 at this venue last year while his best finish in this event is T6 at Bro Hof Slott in 2012. Today’s 63 knocks five shots off his lowest lap in nine appearances in his home tournament.