When Sweden in 1991 won the Dunhill Cup (then viewed as some sort of unofficial World Championships for three man teams) and the World Cup the legendary Swedish TV presenter Goran Zachrisson said something along the lines of ‘yes, this is great bit it is not the big break through of Swedish golf’. He was probably right and in a way I guess you can say that Swedish men’s golf is still waiting for its big breakthrough; A Swedish male golfer has yet to win a major.
There is something about Sweden and Team Sports though and perhaps in particular team golf. On Sunday Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson proved the case with an impressive 63 in the final foursome of the World Cup in China. Perhaps it is the social-democratic society we all grow up in that gives us the ‘everything for the team’ ethos right from the word go? 2009 is quite an astonishing year for Swedish team golf with victories in just about every team event that has been played: European Boys’ and Girls’ Championships, European Ladies’ Championships, World Championships for women and the World Cup for men. The only gaps were the World Championships for men (3rd) and the European Men’s Championships.
In another team event, The Tailhade Cup in Argentina, an England Team with Luke Goddard and Matt Haines had a reasonable chance to capture the title on Sunday. Holland proved the strongest team on the final day though and ran away with the trophy shooting an impressive 137 in the last round. Because of bad weather the Tailhade Cup was shortened to 54 holes. Full results can be found here.