European Tour - Nordea Masters

Changing times this year for the main Swedish event, the Nordea Masters, in more ways than one... The move to early June is probably, on balance (and based on this year's early signs), a slightly better time slot than it used to be in previous years. Still not ideal though with the US Open next week, hence this rather unusual, but practical decision to start the tournament on Wednesday, giving players an extra day for their trip to San Francisco.

The beautiful setting and layout of the Bro Hof Slott just north of Stockholm, is a pretty long (7607 yards) RTJ Jr track (with 5 par 5s and 5 par 3s), which should favour the long hitters. Last year's field was one of the weakest on the main ET all year, leading in the end to a procession and exhibition for Alex Noren (at least in the first 3 rounds) who recorded one of the most categoric wins I've seen in a main tour event in recent years. His breathtaking 63 in very windy conditions in Round 3 was followed by a rather embarassing 77 in the final round, but was still enough to give him a whooping 7-shot winning margin. But things are unlikely to be as easy for Noren this year, with his form being so-and-so at best so far this year, with a Peter Hanson growing in confidence and stature this season and with a couple of big A-list stars coming to town, i.e. Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia. Their decision to play here before the US Open is a bit of a surprise, but Westwood has won twice in Sweden before (including his maiden ET victory) albeit on a different track, and I have a feeling that the Bro Hof layout could suit his game pretty well and I wouldn't be surprised to see a battle between him and Noren later in the week. Sergio can also have a good week here with his exquisite iron play, if he's in the right mood. Jonas Blixt is in the field as well, but there is no home welcome for some of the established Swedish stars like Karlsson, Stenson or Jacobson who are chosing to play in Memphis instead. As for red-neck Pettersson, I'm not even sure if he has a home in Sweden anymore...

The weather prospects are not too bad, with some rain possible today and maybe on Saturday, with the wind picking up a bit maybe on Friday, but shouldn't be such a big factor this year based on the forecasts I've seen. Early leaders are Jonzon, RS Johnson and Hoey, with some promissing starts also from Garcia, Blixt, RCB, Jaidee and others...

big kudos to the tour for switching to the wednesday.

WOW! RCBello's tee shot stops just millimeters off the edge of the hole at the 7th (his 16th hole today)! So unlucky...
Good starts from the Spanish duo, Garcia&RCB, playing together with former winner RS Johnson. The headline group of Westwood, Noren and Hanson should tee it off in about an hour or so...

Great to see Ross Fisher leaving aside last week's nightmare episode and having a flawless round so far.

Looks from the leaderboard like Westwood is chugging along quite nicely.

It sounds like he was watching the Memorial last week, as he publicly backed Andres Romero - including betting an undisclosed sum of money on him! Don't know whether that was for the win or each way basis, mind you, but maybe that grey-ish if not dark horse pick almost coming good has inspired him this week. Maybe Lee's faith inspired Andres too, who knows...

Lee doing well, but to be honest I was expecting even better... he still only pared three of the par 5s (just bogeyed the par 4 14th), so still doesn't seem to have sorted out his issues with those. Noren only a shadow of what he was last year, so it may well be Peter Hanson's turn from the Swedish camp to win this year, we'll see... Great round by the Argentinian youngster Emiliano Grillo....

Fast start from Lee this morning. As he revealed yesterday he has a new set of irons, wedges and new putter in his bag (i20's and Nome), plus the fact that he never played the course before until this week, so in that context his performance is quite impressive so far. A blitz of the course in the remaining days from Noren is still not out of the question. while Sterne continues his brilliant form of late...

Bucket of water for Lee! Is the Nome having the same effect as it did for Mahan when he picked one up?

Good reminder from Hanson before the US Open. Ideal game for it...

The Nome is hot, hot, hot today! Well, his whole game is hot today as a matter of fact... He's making this feel a bit like the Indonesian Masters at the moment...
Good recoveries from Noren, Jeev and Eddi Molinari and a few others...

Name from two or threee years ago playing well, Roope Kakko! Difficult to believe he's 30 already - he'll go down as one of the high achievers in the marriage stakes, quite the team for mixed foursomes.

That's what the Nome's for... great par save for Lee!
Funny to see those clips on Sky from Lee's win in Sweden in 1996!
A bit fat & a funny hat are the key features to describe him then...
Looking more like mean and slim and a birdie machine today...

Sterne eagles the last hole after 2xdrivers & 1xwedge

Imperious round from Westy today!

I'm sure there will be a few remarks from his British fans/supporters (and probably from the highly sarcastic Westwood himself) about his new putter sharing the same name as an eccentric garden ornament [phonetically at least].

Still, if it's boosted his putting (whether through technique or just confidence), that bodes very well for the US Open. Let's see how the rest of this week turns out first though, of course.

Westwood's putter exploits certainly make one wonder where the name came from.

Nome is either the finishing point of the famous Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska or, far more likely, a poor pun from David Bowie's Laughing Gnome, "you look like a rolling gnome".

Regardless, good to know the rolling Nome has been rolling well.

Talk about the Nome... Lee had 27 putts yesterday and only 20 today!!

Scores in the afternoon not quite as low as in the morning session, with the welcome exception of Chris Wood... And the rather depressing site of Oliver Fisher propping up the LB, clearly back in the doldrums, no top 10 since his win at the Czech Open last summer...

Albatross from Lloyd Saltman???

That's right EmmDee, apparently the first ever at the Bro Hof course (it's a relatively young course). According to reports his 2nd shot at the par 5 12th was a 3-iron from 237 yards...!

EmmDee57 wrote:Albatross from Lloyd Saltman???

Did anyone actually see it?

Haven't seen the shot and I see the ET site have chosen Sterne's eagle chip in at the last hole as shot of the day. A bit surprised they don't have a clip, as Saltman was playing in the same group with Carlsson who was the leader after the first round...

Could be a big 2 days for Lloyd Saltman, a top 3 finish could get him his tour card for next year.

McLaren wrote:

EmmDee57 wrote:Albatross from Lloyd Saltman???

Did anyone actually see it?

He remarked his ball10000 times until it was in the hole.

super_realist wrote:He remarked his ball10000 times until it was in the hole.

Wasn't that his brother Elliot with that particular stigma...?

Great to see Ross Fisher playing so well...........bogey free for the week so far..............seems like a good reaction to last week..........

Super

I am glad someone got the fact I menat did he actually get a 2, and not whether it was on Tv or not.

Westwood really has to be a good bet for next week at the US Open.

Burnd Chieseberger is really doing quite well in his career so far isn't he?

Great performance indeed from Ross Fisher... best thing of all is to see that his form is coming back nicely...

A double (for) Chiesberger is not out of question tomorrow... Lee needs to get a few more birdies to be sure these guys are not catching up with him...

princedracula wrote:Great performance indeed from Ross Fisher... best thing of all is to see that his form is coming back nicely...

A double (for) Chiesberger is not out of question tomorrow... Lee needs to get a few more birdies to be sure these guys are not catching up with him...

I'd love to see a breakdown of LW's average score per day of a tournament. I wouldn't mind betting his day 3 scores are the worst by far, which given it's supposed to be 'moving day' isn't ideal.

I hope Ross Fisher wins this, would love to see him back on the world stage. If his putting has improved it's not too late for him to become a force again.

Garcia, Hanson, Westwood collectively -3 after 35 holes.

SJ - I had this plot posted sometimes last year, shows that Lee's 3rd round is not his best on average...

Spoiler:

Anyway, he's been getting the message and carding a few more birdies, so It'll probably still be his to lose tomorrow... But as I said, apart from Fish, I wouldn't discard someone like Noren either who's well able to score a 63-64 on this course....

I wonder when the last time was that someone went bogey free the whole tournament & didn't win?

Perhaps Charles Howell at Greenbrier 2010?

princedracula wrote:SJ - I had this plot posted sometimes last year, shows that Lee's 3rd round is not his best on average...

Spoiler:

Anyway, he's been getting the message and carding a few more birdies, so It'll probably still be his to lose tomorrow... But as I said, apart from Fish, I wouldn't discard someone like Noren either who's well able to score a 63-64 on this course....

Thanks PD, what a wealth of revealing information from such a simple graph! Matteo is evidently a worse offender than Lee, Rory doesn't like Fridays and you can keep your points earned, points lost etc, that graph shows as clearly as anything who's world no. 1.

7 minutes Kwini.Your slipping!!!

Poor old Charles was nowhere near Mr 59!

Wonder when it was last done on the ET?

Fno1, Some things you just remember! Could have been done since for all I know.


Good backnine for Westwood after all - separated nicely now from all but a handful.

Scoring all over the place, Haastrup in with a 91, Saltman peppering the course with birdies, -4 after seven holes. Whassup with that?

Wow... how to shoot +19... Mark Haastrup

Bogey, Quad, Par, Bogey, Bogey, Par, Par, Birdie, Quad = 46
Triple, Triple, Par, Triple, Par, Par, Par, Par, Par = 45

Hickup there at the sixth for the leading group. Three of them tied for 2nd now, nice.... Great day for Sergio, would be good for him in particular to leave from here with some positive feelings for next week...

Not sure what happened to Haastrup this morning, the weather looks ok, some wind swirling out there, but nothing very significant... RCBello just had a quadruple as well...

That's Fisher's first dropped shot of the entire tournament. Bounced back well at 7 though....

Can't work out what Fisher was doing there! Splashed approach the a misjudge chip and poor putt.

However Lee putts from just off front edge right off of the back edge! Yet even though he's not putting great no-one can get near to him.

Good graph though shows Luke really is rightfully No1 imo.

Nice win for Westwood... His first "on the continent" since 2009. Few would question his choice of U.S. Open prep now.

Very emphatic win for Westy in the end... As expected, this track really suited his game and I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back here in future. How good a preparation was for US Open remains to be seen (courses couldn't be more different from what I gather), but the reality is that the win makes that particular aspect less relevant. Certainly is an ideal confidence boost before the US Open. Some positives to take away also for guys like Ross Fisher, Sergio and Hanson... And a strong finish also for the young Swedish hope Joakim Lagergren...

Ooo - has Lee peaked too early? Has someone explained to him that he can't carry forward the spare -4 to the US Open???