Germany’s Yannik Paul and Denmark’s Niklas Nørgaard both fired opening rounds of 65 (-7) to lead at the end of the first day of the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed.
The tournament is a co-sanctioned event between the LET and DP World Tour and it sees 78 men and 78 women playing for the same prize fund of US $2 million and one trophy.
It was a solid day for Paul, who began his round on the 10th tee and made two birdies and one bogey in his first nine holes at Ullna Golf Club.
However, it was on his back nine where he found a rich vein of form rolling in three consecutive birdies on one through three, he then added two more on six and seven before finishing with another birdie on nine to seal a round of seven-under-par.
“I’m really pleased,” said Paul. “My putter got to work on the back nine. I hit it close a few times but made a lot of nice putts which always helps. I’m really pleased with my round.
“I feel like it got colder as the day got started. It was really warm on like the third and fourth hole, not too windy. But then all of a sudden it got windier and the clouds came in. So, I think it played a bit trickier on the back nine.
“Overall, the course is in great shape and I’m actually really enjoying playing with the girls as well. We don’t get to do it that often, so it’s cool to have a little change.”
The German teed it up with the latest winner on the LET – Lisa Pettersson – who was victorious at last week’s Helsingborg Open and he was impressed with her game.
He added: “I played with Lisa [Pettersson] today who’s from Sweden and I think she has really good game. On some of the holes we definitely have some advantages, but I really enjoyed it. We had some good conversations and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
It was a slightly different story for Nørgaard who came into the tournament having not practised due to injuring his back water-skiing on Monday.
Despite that, the Dane rolled in four birdies on his front nine before dropping a shot on the second hole.
However, he soon made up for it with an eagle on the third and closed his round with back-to-back birdies on eight and nine to also finish on seven-under.
“It was a very weird day because I had no preparation at all,” said Nørgaard. “I hurt my back on Monday, so I come up here and I haven’t practised. I haven’t played the course, I just went out there with pretty much no expectations at all and it worked today.
“I was home for one day…
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