De Jager, Walters shine in Stockholm

South Africans Louis de Jager and Justin Walters made an excellent start to the Scandinavian Mixed tournament on Thursday.

De Jager shot an opening round 66 that included eight birdies and two bogies. He is one stroke behind the co-leaders, Niklas Norgaard of Denmark and Germany’s Yannik Paul.

Walters carded 67, with an eagle, six birdies and three birdies, to share seventh position.

A field of 78 men and 78 women are playing in the same groups for one prize fund and one trophy, with Linn Grant having made history as the first female winner of a DP World Tour event with a brilliant nine-shot victory 12 months ago.

It was the men who had the better of it early in 2023 but Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab was in the group one shot off the lead at six under alongside De Jager, Frenchman Frederic Lacroix and England’s Dale Whitnell.

With the wind always likely to increase at the lakeside venue as the day went on, Paul was the first player to take advantage of an early tee time, coming home in 30 after starting on the 10th to set the target at seven under.

Nørgaard’s first shot of the week was his opening tee-shot after he injured his back water-skiing on Monday but the big-hitting Dane showed no signs of discomfort as a birdie-birdie finish saw him join Paul at the top of the leaderboard.

German Alexander Knappe made the 21st hole-in-one of the season, hitting a perfect nine-iron from 156 yards at the 14th.