The DP World Tour and the Ladies European Tour come together this week for the second staging of the Scandinavian Mixed, a tournament which sees the men and the women competing on the same course in the same event.
This was a historic event last year and Jonathan Caldwell certainly enjoyed himself at it as he won his maiden title at this level. He is back to attempt to defend the title against a competitive field put together by the two tours.
Recent Winners
2021 – Jonathan Caldwell
The Course
We have moved venue for this second staging of the tournament. We are at the Halmstad Golf Club this week where the men’s yardage is 6,909 yards and the ladies yardage of 5,940 with both a par 72. We don’t have a huge amount of information about the course but what we can decipher from past events and the snippets online is that it is a treelined course with plenty of doglegs and parkland fairways, very much in the Woburn style.
When you look at the yardage length clearly isn’t going to be needed this week, although it is never a bad thing. On a treelined track accuracy off the tee is always required. I don’t expect the course to be setup that difficult this week so we’re probably looking at a relatively low winning score unless the wind gets up so I’m going to side with accurate sorts who have been putting nicely coming in this week, although the poor putters might not be as disadvantaged as they sometimes are with few having experienced the golf course.
The Field
Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam are hosting the tournament this week so a decent profile was always going to be applied to the tournament even if most of the attention is on an event happening elsewhere. In terms of the world rankings we only have one member of the top 100 this week and that is the home man Alex Noren. The field also includes just one member of the top 20 in the Race to Dubai rankings in Shubhankar Sharma.
Each group this week has a mixture of men and women and among the leading lights from the female world are Pia Babnik, Maja Stark and the woman who briefly led the US Open last week in Ingrid Lindblad. Other men who catch the eye this week are Alexander Bjork, Romain Langasque, Sebastian Soderberg, Marcus Kinhult, Joakim Lagergren as well as the host Stenson. Jason Scrivener and Johannes Veerman head up the international challenge.
Market Leaders
Alex Noren is clearly the best player in the field on the world ranking and right up there on career achievements and he is the 10/1 favourite on the best prices this week. He has a pretty decent DP World Tour record when he switches over from the PGA Tour so he is a worthy favourite but he arrives here off the back of a couple of missed cuts. He has four top 12 finishes on the PGA Tour since February though and if he is in any sort of normal form he is very much the one to beat.
Alexander Bjork is the second favourite this week at 22/1. He was seventh at the Dutch Open a couple of weeks ago and he was seventh in this tournament too. I wonder if the course is a little tight for him but if he can drive it well then we know the rest of his game stands up to most in this tournament. He looks in decent form and it wouldn’t be a complete surprise to see the Swede in contention on home soil.
Edoardo Molinari and Maja Stark are next in the betting at 25/1. This test could really suit Molinari and he comes here with three top 10 finishes in his last five events so his claims are pretty obvious. Stark is the leading female in the betting. She was second in Thailand a few weeks ago and was in the top 20 in this tournament last year. If a woman is to win this tournament then there is nothing to suggest it won’t be Stark.
Henrik Stenson has plenty on his plate as the tournament host and the Ryder Cup captain this week and he is 28/1 to win his own event. I always leave hosts out of my staking plan but should Stenson turn up in any sort of form then at his best he has the majority of this field covered. Three top 20 finishes in 13 events in 2022 suggests he isn’t in much form and the demands on his time certainly isn’t going to help. He isn’t for me.
Main Bets
Edoardo Molinari has three top 10s in his last five starts and they have all been in stronger fields and events than this one so I think the Italian is worth chancing this week. Molinari is very straight off the tee and he’s pretty decent into the greens and unlike a lot of Italians he is decent with the putter in hand. Where I was particularly impressed was Molinari finishing in a tie for fifth last week on a course that was always going to be way too long for him. It highlights how well he is hitting the ball and on a course much better suited to his skill set I would be surprised if he isn’t right there again.
John Catlin was one of my bets last week albeit with the caveat that the course might have been too long for him and that is how it proved, however on none of the four days was he disgraced in any way which suggests he is also hitting the ball nicely. Catlin wins on tight tracks. He won at Valderrama where trees are everywhere and he has a number of Asian Tour wins on tight tracks. We know Catlin will be above this level from tee to green so if he can find some putts to drop then he should be right there once again too.
Outsiders
I took Darren Fichardt in the Dutch Open a couple of weeks ago and although he didn’t deliver the goods there it might just have been that the course was a little too open for him. Even then his first and final rounds were decent enough but he got caught out in between. Fichardt hits a lot of fairways. He has ranked in the top 10 in hitting fairways for the last two weeks and was tenth in strokes gained on approach last week on a course that would have been far too long for him. That highlights how he is hitting the ball so in a serious drop off in quality in the field this week I’ll see if the South African can contend here.
I’ll also take a shot in the dark at the Italian outsider Lorenzo Gagli. Gagli is one of the shorter hitters in world golf but length isn’t going to be an issue this week. Accuracy will be important and there are few more accurate than him off the tee. In four of his last nine starts he has ranked in the top four for fairways hit in stronger fields than this one and he isn’t lost any ground on the field on approach in those times. Two weeks ago on exposed greens he gained more than five shots on the field on the dancefloors in the Dutch Open so if he puts it all together here he could be a monster price in a wide open event.
Tips
Back E.Molinari to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back J.Catlin to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back D.Fichardt to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back L.Gagli to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 251.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
