Linn Grant (-17) has won for the second time the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, the mixed tournament of the European circuit calendar that each year gains more interest and followers. The Swede started today eleven strokes, no more no less, from the leader Sebastian Soderberg (-16), or in other words, with absolutely no chance of victory according to any reasonable analysis that could be made and, above all, above all things, in view of the extraordinary tournament that her compatriot, Soderberg, was playing, who today went out to play with an eight-stroke lead over his immediate pursuer after signing an extraterrestrial accumulated of -21 in the first 54 holes…
But it is clear that there is nothing absolutely impossible in this sport. On one hand, Grant did her job masterfully, signing a seven-under card, free of bogeys, that she handed in an hour and a half before the star match reached the last hole; and on the other hand Soderberg was slowly slipping, hole by hole, into terrible quicksand that ended up swallowing him and from which we will have to see when he comes out, because what happened today to this 33-year-old Swede is not easily forgotten.
Soderberg has signed a 77, the worst result of the day, and the truth is that he had not entered the round badly, making the birdie on hole 3, the first par 5 of the Vasatorps Golfklubb. From that moment almost everything was going to be suffering and uncertainty for the Swede, who was bleeding with bogeys on holes 4, 5, 8, 13 and 15, the first of them, the one on hole 4, missing a putt of just half a meter. But there was still the final drama, with failed double somersault and twist. Grant’s great round and his own mistakes (where had those guided irons from the first three rounds gone?) had left him almost without margin, but he still went up to the 18th tee with a one-stroke lead and, in addition, he put the drive in the fairway and had a shot of about 145 meters to the flag. Only one last stroke was left before reaching the shore, as the par was enough for him to win and, in the worst case, the bogey would take him to a tie…
Then the disaster occurred.
To start with, he went to the bunker with the second shot and the ball was left in fried egg mode. From there he put it on the green, about seven meters from the hole. The first putt was short, about forty centimeters from the hole, and he missed the bogey putt that would have put him in a play off. He did it in the most cruel way, with a 360-degree lip-out that consummated the double bogey and gave the victory to Grant.
It would have been Soderberg’s second victory on the European circuit, almost five years after the second. But above all it would have been the logical result of everything this player is doing in 2024, which to date has been by far the best year of his career, to the point of entering the top 100 in the world for the first time. Now it’s time to see how he digests such a blow.
