After a five-year absence, the European Challenge Tour is back in Sweden this week for the Swedish Challenge hosted by Robert Karlsson, and its return could not be more timely, with Swedish golf riding a wave following multiple recent successes at all levels.
Heading them all is Henrik Stenson’s incredible maiden Major victory as the 40 year old – who topped the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2000 – won the Open Championship in a memorable showdown with Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon.
This breakthrough triumph – the first Major win by a Swedish player – followed hot on the heels of Alex Noren’s victory in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open the previous week.
Noren, like Stenson, owes much of his early development to the Challenge Tour, having won once and come second twice on his way to finishing third in the Rankings in 2006, since when he has gone on to claim five wins on the European Tour.
Following these back-to-back European Tour wins, Alexander Bjӧrk took a maiden Challenge Tour title as he won Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, drawing inspiration from Stenson’s success to overturn a two-shot deficit heading into the final round and beat Nick Cullen by one shot.
His victory was the third Swedish win on the Challenge Tour in 2016 following Simon Forsstrom’s maiden title at the KPMG Trophy and Sebastian Soderberg's victory in the season-opening Barclays Kenya Open, further evidence of the long and successful relationship Swedish golf has had with Europe’s top developmental tour.
Soderberg then made his Major Championship debut when he came through Final Qualifying to earn a spot at Oakmont for the US Open Championship, and both he and Bjӧrk are currently in the top 15 on this season's Road to Oman.
Last season, Bjӧrn Åkesson and Jens Fahrbring finished inside the top 15 of the Rankings to earn graduation to the European Tour, becoming the latest in a long line of Swedish Challenge Tour graduates that includes Kristoffer Broberg, Johan Carlsson, Johan Edfors and Peter Hanson, as well as Noren and Stenson.
With Stenson’s Open victory sure to inspire the next generation of Swedish golfers, the timing could not be more perfect for Robert Karlsson to be bringing the Challenge Tour back to his home country to the picturesque Katrineholms GK.
