Magnus A

Carlsson

The 36-year-old Swede is 6-for-13 this season with just the one top 20, when T9 in the Perth International, to be 118th in Race to Dubai. It’s his 8th season on the European Tour and he’s retained his card five times, including each of the last four occasions, but it’s fair to say he achieves it by stealth - in 2013 he held on to it by making just one top ten, last year he did so just twice. He has a solid 3-for-3 record at Diamond CC, all of them top 30s, with the highlight being T8 in 2011. He’s also ranked top 13 for Greens in Regulation in each of those three years and has actually improved with every outing: 13-7-4. If he maintains that trend he’ll be worth noting.

It left the Swede, an early finisher among the afternoon wave, in a tie for fifth when he signed his card. After missing the cut at both the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship, he got his season back on track with T30 at the Nordea Masters and T10 at the Lyoness Open. This round helps him maintain that pattern of improvement. He owed it to a run of four straight red numbers on his first nine, the back nine, starting at No. 13. With another two birdies at 2 and 3 he was prepped to contend the lead only to slip up with bogeys at 5 and 9. His long game shone all day as he missed just three fairways and was 15-for-18 in greens in regulation.

For Carlsson, it’s a 10th start in the event and, so far, he’s cashed in six of the previous nine. The 36-year-old isn’t one of the more high-profile Swedes and that’s reflected in his finishes in the event as he’s not been able to improve upon T30 at Arlandastad in 2008. At this week’s venue, Bro Hof Slott, he’s made three cuts out of four with a best of T38 in 2012. That year, he opened with a 65 so he has gone low at the par 72 in Stockholm. As for recent European Tour form, he’s missed his last two cuts (BMW PGA and Irish Open) but was T21 in the China Open before that. A T9 in the Perth Invitational is Carlsson’s best result from 12 starts this season.

The Swede is one of the curious wonders of the European circuit, heading into a sixth consecutive season of action despite notching just 13 top tens in that period. Moreover, he hasn’t had a top five finish since he was T3 at the Trophee Hassan II in March 2014. It’s not even as if he has the knack – which Graeme Storm has, for example – of peaking once or twice in big money events. No, the only examples of that would be a T6 in the 2014 Irish Open and T9 in the same year’s Qatar Masters. Otherwise he plots his way round the course, through a week and then through the year. Typically of players of his standard (retains his card, struggles to regularly contend) he is yet to end a year with a Putts per Round average below 30.

The 36-year-old Swede is one of the great curiosities of the European Tour because with stealth and cunning he retains cards. This is his seventh consecutive year on the circuit and yet he rarely seems to show up on leaderboards. In fact he’s never logged more than four top tens in a season and has only two top three in that entire period. 124th this year after ten starts, he has made just three weekends, but T9 in the Dubai Desert Classic explains why he’s not that far from being inside the card-retention line. That said he’s missed five straight cuts. Ultra solid on the course though with results logging: T8 (2011), T30 (2012), T19 (2013) and T10 (2016).

The Swede, who is something of an expert in retaining his card, often without performing in the big events, and frequently without making too many top tens, might want to buck that trend this week; he’s certainly made a bright start which he needs given he is 135th in the Race to Dubai, is just 3-for-12 and has missed his last seven cuts – indeed, it is the first time he has broken 70 since the Joburg Open in late February. When he made bogey at 1 he cannot have expected the final result, and despite birdies at 5 and 7, after another bogey at 9 he was back where he started. But a brace of red numbers at 13 and 14, followed by a final hole eagle-3 turned his hopes round – and maybe his season? He’s three back of the leader Mikko Ilonen.

After a stuttering 5-5 start, the Swede got going with a birdie at the par-5 12th and made further gains at 16, 4 and 8 to reach 7-under 135 at the midpoint. That’s just three shots behind clubhouse leader Charl Schwartzel and puts him T4 on the live leaderboard. Carlsson. who was T7 at the KLM Open on his most recent start, split only 6 (of 13) fairways but hit 14 greens in regulation for the second day running. He took 29 putts and was 3-for-4 in scrambling.

The Swede opened with a bogey-5 on Friday but responded with birdies at 13, 17, 1, 4 and 7 to finish in T5 and just three off the lead. Carlsson has been in the money 16 times out of 20 this season but a T8 in April’s China Open is his only top 10. Now, he’ll have a chance to improve on that after two solid rounds in which he’s missed just six greens in regulation. He hit 14 today and was 3-for-4 in scrambles.

The Swede arrived in Australia off the back off three missed cuts but found some rhythm today with a lap of Lake Karrinyup CC which featured five birdies, 12 pars and a bogey. His set included an opening pair at 10 and 11 while the only dropped shot came at the 444-yard par-4 18th. Carlsson will want to cash in on his good start much better than he did in the last edition of this event in October 2014. That time, he opened with a 67 but followed it with a Friday 76 and eventually finished T35. The 35-year-old, who finished 79th on last year’s Race to Dubai, hit 15 greens in regulation today after finding just 8 (of 14) fairways. The leaderboard at the close of day one shows him in T5 and three off the lead.