Jonathan

Caldwell

However, the 37-year-old Caldwell recently earned his maiden European Tour victory one start prior at the Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika in Gothenburg, Sweden. The World No. 219 entered the final day three shots off the lead but carded a closing-round 64 to get to 17 under and win by a stroke over Spain’s Adrian Otaegui. “(The victory) gave me great confidence to win, and to know that I can win now is massive,” he told media on Wednesday. “Hopefully I’ll have plenty more chances, and I can feed off that win a couple weeks ago.” Caldwell added that he hopes to draw on previous experience at Mount Juliet: “The last time I played was probably 15 years ago. So, I do remember a lot of the holes and a lot of the shots. Course is in tremendous condition. Obviously, the weather has been fantastic the last week or two here at home. I think it’s going to be great the rest of the week. I hope it dries out a wee bit and get a bit of bounce in the fairways and the greens and toughen it up a little bit.” This season overall, Caldwell is 6-of-12 in cuts made.

The 29-year-old Caldwell entered the final day at Vallda Golf and Country Club in Gothenburg, Sweden, three shots off the lead but carded a closing-round 64 to get to 17 under and win by a stroke over Spain’s Adrian Otaegui, who three-putted his 72nd hole. It’s been a long road to the winner’s circle for Caldwell, who first came through European Tour qualifying school in 2008 but since then had played just 47 events coming into the week. He worked in a local golf shop during some of his time on the EuroPro Tour -- claiming wins in 2016 and 2017 -- and made his way back to the European Tour via the Qualifying School in 2019 after a decade away. He has since made the best of the opportunity: In 2020, Caldwell made 14-of-21 cuts with three top 10s, and this season he’s 6-of-11. “It’s been a dream of mine for an awful long time,” he said following his win. “A lot of hard work goes into it. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but hopefully more to come. … It’s been a long road, but finally I’m here.”

The Northern Irishman lies four strokes back of the leader Robin Sciot-Siegrist and with very few European Tour winners in the top 20 he is one of many sniffing a career breakthrough at the weekend. A Walker Cup performer with Rory McIlroy and Danny Willett in 2007, he has struggled to adapt to the pro game and has been stuck on the third tier Europro Tour. In fact, before this season he had only one top 50 in 16 starts on the ET and that was T31. But he has gone T14-T57 this term and now makes another cut. He exchanged birdies at 3, 6 and 7 with a bogey at No. 8 on the way out on the Creek Course Friday, then added another ticked number at 10 and closed with an eagle-3 at 17.