This Thursday marks the start of a new edition of the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, a tournament of the DP World Tour that takes place in Sweden. Although on this occasion, the chosen venue for an event in which players from the European circuit and players from the Ladies European Tour share the event, course and prizes, although with a different distribution of points, takes us back in time almost half a century. Because, once again, the representatives of the Armada will try to follow in the footsteps of Seve Ballesteros…
The Cantabrian golfer was the first to stake a claim at the Vasatorps Golfklubb in Helsingborg. Or in other words, in 1978, the first time the European Tour visited this course in the Swedish city of the province of Scania, located next to the Øresund strait, it was Seve who achieved victory. The tournament was known as the Scandinavian Enterprise Open and was held from 3 to 6 August in the year in which the Spanish Constitution was approved in a referendum in our country, in which Argentina of Mario Alberto Kempes won the World Cup or in which ‘Living like this is dying of love’, by Camilo Sesto, triumphed on all stations and parties.
From the archives of this week's venue 🏆
Seve Ballesteros becomes the first man on Tour to win at Vasatorps Golfklubb in 1978.#volvoscandinavianmixed pic.twitter.com/m6Z5EdT9IZ
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 4, 2024
Coincidentally, the day the tournament ended, in which Seve beat South African Dale Hayer by a single stroke and Scottish Bernard Gallacher by two strokes (the second best Spaniard was Ángel Gallardo, five strokes behind Ballesteros), was the day of the death of Pope Paul VI, in Castel Gandolfo, pontiff who was succeeded by John Paul I, who died just over a month later. Returning to golf, which is what concerns us, Seve won with cards of 73,69, 68 and 69 strokes and took a cash prize that at the current exchange rate would be 9,722.22 euros.
That was the first of the three editions of the tournament won by the legendary golfer from Pedreña, who went on to win again in 1981, with a five-stroke lead over Antonio Garrido, and in 1988, also with a five-stroke margin over Australian Gerry Taylor. Seve added to his appearances at this Scandinavian event a second place in 1979, a year after his first title at the event, three strokes behind Sandy Lyle, and another second place in 1991, one stroke behind Colin Montgomerie. Although his passage through this Swedish tournament, in addition to successes, also included a big scare…
It was a year before his first victory, when this Scandinavian event of the European tour was held at the Royal Drottningholm Golf Club. The chronicles of the time told it like this: “The Spanish Severiano Ballesteros was struck by lightning during the second round of the Friday of the Scandinavian Enterprise Open golf championship, endowed with 80,000 dollars, but came out unscathed. Ballesteros, a young and brilliant star of European golf, had just decided to head towards the clubhouse along with his two playing partners when he was struck by lightning on the 14th fairway. “It was horrible,” said Ballesteros. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Lee Trevino”. Trevino was struck by lightning while playing in Chicago in 1975 and has never regained his best form. Ballesteros suffered minor burns on his right leg. He also suffered a shock, but said he did not intend to withdraw from the tournament. When the game was interrupted by the sudden storm, Australian Greg Norman had completed his round of 71 strokes for a total of 36 holes of 138, six under par in two rounds on the Drottingholm course, 6,678 yards long”.
The weather is not very favourable these next few days in Helsingborg. In fact, the forecast speaks of rain from Thursday to Sunday (hopefully, without lightning like the one that gave Seve a championship scare). But these adverse conditions will not deter the eight Spaniards who are looking to become the second player from our country to win this old Volvo Open, Scandinavian Enterprise Open, Scandinavian Masters and current Scandinavian Mixed Open. Because in addition, some of them are playing to accompany Jon Rahm representing Spain at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer…
Nacho Elvira, Jorge Campillo and Adrián Otaegui, present in Sweden, are trying to snatch the spot from David Puig, who will have one more opportunity at the US Open in Pinehurst to regain his place if any of the three manage to snatch it this week (they need a very good result to do so). In addition, Adri Arnaus, Santi Tarrio, Alejandro del Rey, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Ángel Hidalgo will seek to continue expanding the list of Spanish winners this season on the European tour, after the victories of Otaegui in China and Elvira in Belgium.
