Although his strong finish was lost in the justifiable hype of a woman comprehensively winning on the DP World Tour on Sunday, Jacques Kruyswijk will be quietly pleased with his share of 13th in the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed.
Kruyswijk carded a two-under-par 70 for finish 11-under-par for the week, but, like everyone else, he was virtually lapped by Sweden’s Linn Grant who closed with an eight-under 64 to swat aside the challenge of 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson. Grant had rounds of 66-66-68-64, and not even a charge by Marc Warren, who carded a closing 65, was enough to threaten her lead, which was eventually a yawning gap of nine strokes.
The tournament was a co-sanctioned event between the Ladies European Tour and DP World Tour and it saw 78 men and 78 women playing for the same prize fund of $2-million and one trophy.
Grant began the day two shots clear of Australia’s Jason Scrivener and got off to a blistering start rolling in birdies on five of her first six holes. Three further birdies on the back nine saw the Helsingborg native seal an emphatic win – her third on the LET in 2022 – at Halmstad Golf Club.
“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,” said the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup player, who carded her eighth consecutive round in the 60s.
“I was actually surprisingly calm on the first tee. My first day with Annika [Sörenstam] was my most scary and stressful one, so today on the first fairway I told my caddie 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.”
Grant played in the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed last year as an amateur when she finished in a share of 18th before turning professional in August. She won three times on the Sunshine Ladies Tour to dominate that Order of Merit.
Justin Walters was the next-best of the South Africans, his closing one-under 71 giving him a share of 20th on nine-under. Zander Lombard and Darren Fichardt closed with three-over 75 each, and shared 37th on four-over. Casandra Alexander had a battle in her final round, a four-over 76 seeing her slip 21 places on the leaderboard into a share of 54th on two-under. Stacy Lee Bregman had a two-over 74 for a share of 61st om level-par.
