Linn Grant made history in front of her home fans as she stormed to a stunning nine-shot victory at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed to become the first female winner of a DP World Tour event.
The 22-year-old Swede produced a nerveless display of frontrunning on Sunday to keep a host of DP World Tour stars at bay and claim her third Ladies European Tour title in just six starts this season.
Grant did not put a foot wrong at Halmstad Golf Club on day four, stretching her overnight lead from two shots to seven with five birdies in the first six holes.
She managed to keep her card clean with three successive pars as the rain poured down over the next few holes before making another birdie on the tenth.
Spurred on by the enormous crowds that followed her wherever she went, Grant picked up further shots at the 11th and 14th to sign for a flawless 64, topping the leaderboard at 24 under par to win by the biggest margin on the DP World Tour so far this season.
Home hero and tournament co-host Henrik Stenson finished in a tie for second on 15 under alongside Scotland’s Marc Warren, with back-to-back birdies at the 17th and 18th helping Stenson to a closing 70.
Player Quotes
Linn Grant: “I’m speechless and I’m so happy that I’m at home just to see all the kids and my family is here and everyone that I care about is watching, so it’s really nice. I was actually surprisingly calm on the first tee. My first day with Annika was my most scary and stressful one, so today on the first fairway I told Pontus that I was very calm and it’s very doable today to play with this.
“I felt happy and relieved and to be able to get in the zone and just enjoy golf for a last day was very nice. When I walked up on the 13th green, I saw the leaderboard and I saw it was eight shots and it was very relaxing to not have to change gears and I could just go out and continue doing what I was doing.
“I hope this victory is big. I hope it brings women more forward and it gets people’s eyes on us a little bit more. It is always nice to say that you beat the guys for a week! To be able to speak Swedish and hear everyone out there cheering for you, it was amazing.”
“Pontus (Grant’s caddie and boyfriend) has been amazing, keeping me calm and doing everything right. The crowds are, like always, amazing. Swedish crowds!”
“It’s a nice feeling. All week I just felt like it’s the girls against the guys and whoever picks up that trophy represents the field.”
Henrik Stenson: “I think in the end I ended up tied second with a couple of late birdies and the only thing I could have done better was solo second because there was just one player out there today and she played amazing. Every time I looked back she was in prime position and just gave herself birdie chance one after another I would imagine, so there wasn’t much I could do against a player like that, so very well played and congratulations to Linn.
“It has been great and like Annika said Halmstad has been a great venue for it. We have a great hotel just around the corner and golf course in good shape and good setup, so it has just been good fun to be out there with everyone. They have enjoyed themselves and so have we as busy hosts this week, and I managed to make a few birdies myself along the way which was good, so we are going to be back and looking forward to next year already.
Annika Sörenstam: “It has been a great success and I want to congratulate Linn Grant for a dominate performance, and my co-host here Henrik for his finish today, I am very proud of him.
“I think the dream scenario is we would like to have one each win every other year and now we have been two years and we have got a male winner and a female winner, so I think that the concept works and it can be fun, and competitive, but it has been a great week.
“It has been nice to have great crowds, especially this weekend, and a great golf course, so we are super excited and great to see we had such a wonderful finish. It wasn’t maybe as exciting as we wanted but I think overall the performance of Linn and having a few more players up there, it means a lot for the tournament moving forward.”
