As expected, no one has been able to catch up with Sebastian Soderberg (-15) in the afternoon round of the second day of the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed. The Swede leads with an iron hand at the halfway point of the tournament. In the women’s section, also a Swede, Linn Grant (-9) is the best positioned player on the leaderboard.
Soderberg has accumulated two second places and a third in the last regular events he has played in the DP World Tour. These performances also earned him an invitation to the PGA Championship 2024, a tournament in which he was able to make the cut. The 33-year-old player wants to add his second title on the European Tour and taste the sweetness of victory again almost five years later. He has been watching the victory slip away at the last moment for several weeks and wants to say enough before the victory begins to choke him.
However, if this morning when Soderberg handed in his card at the clubhouse, he had a six-stroke lead over the second, Jorge Campillo (-9) at that time, now the gap has been reduced to a three-stroke lead. The culprit was the Scotsman Scott Jamieson (-12) who handed in a great card of 65 strokes in Helsinborg. It could have been even better, but on the last flag of the day he made the first bogey of the day after not being able to control his second shot from the right rough and going a little long on the left of the green. That stain does not tarnish a spectacular round with eight birdies. One stroke behind the Scotsman is Julien Guerrier (-11) who has achieved the best card of the day with 64 strokes.
Finally, Jorge Campillo (-9) has finished the day in fourth position tied. As he is at this moment he would surpass David Puig in the race for the Olympic Games.
In the afternoon round, the Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello (-6) has again shown visible signs of recovery. He has not shone his game as much as in the inaugural round of the tournament, but with a round of 70 strokes he extends to seven the streak of consecutive rounds under par.
The Canary Islander started the round with a twisted nose with two bogeys in the first five flags. Although, in truth, that result of two over par was an excessive punishment for what had been seen on the course. On the third hole he missed a clear birdie opportunity of three meters and on the next flag he did not hole the birdie putt by centimeters. From the sixth hole, Rafa was back on track and before the end of the first round he was already under par. One more birdie in the second round keeps him within the provisional top 20.
Piano piano se arriva lontano, say the Italians (little by little or step by step you get far): there is no better proverb to describe the work that Rafa has been doing in recent months and that seems to be starting to peek out from under the door. The seventh place last week in Hamburg was no coincidence. He will seek to confirm those good feelings with another good weekend that will also help him to get the card for the next course on track.
Special mention to what happened this afternoon in Sweden deserves Ángel Hidalgo (-3). Four holes from the end the Malaga player was at par total and, therefore, two strokes from the cut which was set at -2. Neither short nor lazy, he has pulled three birdies out of his sleeve and has made the cut even with a stroke of tranquility.
The other Spaniard who has made the cut in this evening round has been the Galician Santi Tarrio (-5) who has tied with Nacho Elvira after handing in a card of 68 strokes with four hits without error.
They have not been so lucky neither Adri Arnaus (PAR), nor Adrián Otaegui (+2), nor Alejandro del Rey (+3) who will not play the weekend in Helsinborg.
In the women’s section Linn Grant (-9) continues to play very comfortably at home and continues as the best ranked player. They are closely followed by two strokes, the English Alice Hewson, the Dane Nicole Broche Estrup and also the Swede Johanna Gustavsonn. It is not being the best week for the Armada in the women’s section as only Luna Sobrón (-3) and María Hernández (-2) have managed to make the cut. Therefore, Teresa Díez Moliner (+1), Nuria Iturrioz (+2), Carmen Alonso (+2), Teresa Toscano (+3), Marta Sanz (+5) and Fátima Fernández Cano (+5) say goodbye earlier than desired from the Scandinavian test.
The unfortunate anecdote of the day was caused by Magdelene Sagstrom (+1). The Swedish player arrived -2 at the tee of the 18th hole just on the limit to make the cut. A bad start sank her ball in a wild rough on the left side. Sagstrom has played it and instead of playing to place the ball on the street has tried to throw to green with unfortunate result as her ball has barely advanced ten meters and in the same dense rough. She needed the par so she has played it again. The ball came out a little low and too far to the left with such bad luck that it gave a serious blow to a cameraman who was to the left of the green. He fell to the ground writhing in pain, let’s hope it stays as a mere painful anecdote. Logically, the Swede was not able to add the par and will watch the outcome of the tournament on television.
