Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Scotland’s Marc Warren finished joint runner up and made the biggest gains on the DP World Tour Rankings in partnership with Rolex after an historic weekend at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed which saw Linn Grant become the first female to win on the DP World Tour.
Grant finished a remarkable nine shots clear of the field in the innovative event, which is co-sanctioned with the LET.
The 22-year-old Swede was the only player to go bogey-free over the weekend in Tylösand en route to a winning score of 264, a thoroughly impressive 24 under par. The former Arizona State University player, who only turned professional last August, departed with her sixth pro victory, an entry in golf’s history books and €319,716 richer courtesy of a third title, and second in succession, in just her sixth start on the LET.
Stenson, co-hosting the €2 million tournament with legendary countrywoman Annika Sörenstam, was perhaps best positioned to challenge Grant but could manage only a closing 70.
It was still the 46-year-old Swede’s best finish on the DP World Tour since he captured the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon and sees Stenson climb 112 places up to 38th in the DP World Tour Rankings.
That means the former Dubai resident, European Number One in 2013 and 2016 and Ryder Cup captain for next year’s contest against Team USA in Rome, is now comfortably inside the top 50 players set to contest the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 17-20.
Warren has made an even bigger jump, up a whopping 179 places to 55th which leaves him on the cusp of another appearance at Jumeirah Golf Estates. A four-time DP World Tour winner, Warren finished 109th in last year’s rankings but has placed as high as 25th (in 2015) and will hope his impressive closing 65 at Halmstad G.C. is a pointer of a return to glories past. The 41-year-old’s last win on the DP World Tour came at the 2020 Austrian Open.
Australia’s Jason Scrivener, Spaniard Santiago Tarrio and Frenchman Darius Van Driel shared fourth place in Sweden on 14 under par and climbed 45, 47 and 65 places respectively up the DP World Tour Rankings. It sees Scrivener up to 64th, Tarrio 80th and Van Driel 115th.
The French duo of Romain Langasque and Matthieu Pavon secured top ten finishes to improve their rankings to 34th and 49th respectively, the latter critically a spot inside the bubble for the DP World Tour Championship.
Rory McIlroy leads the DP World Tour Rankings with 1971.1 points from Viktor Hovland (1953.2) and Justin Thomas (1946.3).
Golf’s global focus turns to the 122nd U.S. Open at The Country Club at Brookline this week before the action returns to Europe at the BMW International Open in Munich from June 23-26.
World Number 11 Billy Horschel will headline the €2 million event at Golfclub München Eichenried.
The BMW International Open kickstarts a run of three events encompassing the Horizon Irish Open (June 30-July 3) and the Genesis Scottish Open (July 7-10) in the countdown to the much-anticipated 150th Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews from July 14-17.
But that is for the future. On Sunday the focus belonged to Grant and rightly so.
“I hope this victory is big,” the Swede said afterwards. “I hope it brings women more forward and it gets people’s eyes on us a little bit more. It is always nice to say that you beat the guys for a week.”
“I ended up tied second with a couple of late birdies and the only thing I could have done better was solo second because there was just one player out there today and she played amazing,” said Stenson.
“Every time I looked back she was in prime position and just gave herself birdie chances one after another I would imagine, so there wasn’t much I could do against a player like that, so very well played and congratulations to Linn.”
