Reigning Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year Stephanie Kyriacou will heed the advice of seven-time Major champion Karrie Webb as she sets out to win the tournament hosted by Webb’s fiercest rival.
This week’s Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam showcases 78 male players from the European Tour and 78 females representing the Ladies European Tour in a format virtually identical to that adopted by The Players Series events on the PGA Tour of Australasia earlier this year.
Kyriacou and Whitney Hillier are the two Australian women in the field while Scott Hend, Jason Scrivener, Maverick Antcliff and Jake McLeod are the Aussie men teeing it up along with Kiwis Ryan Fox and Josh Geary.
Admitting that she has struggled to meet her own high expectations in her first two events of the Ladies European Tour season, Kyriacou recently reached out to Webb as to how best manage her emotional state on the golf course.
The 20-year-old intends to put that into practice this week in her quest to win a tournament bearing the names of Swedish legends Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson.
“The first couple of events I was thinking that I had to win. I wanted to win early to prove that I’m still good,” said Kyriacou, who was fourth at the Ladies Italian Open two weeks ago and turned professional after winning the Ladies Classic at Bonville last February.
“I’d miss a couple of putts and get really angry and then realise after the round how stupid I was being.
“I messaged Karrie to ask for a few tips of what she did back in her day and she gave me a few things that I’m going to take into this week.
“She told me there is a very fine line between expectations and goals and you have to define them.
“She also said to stay in the present. Do a couple of breathing exercises and she said she used to close her eyes and listen to the different sounds and try and figure out what they were to get her mind off everything else.
“Hopefully I’ll be in the final group and be able to use that one this week.”
Kyriacou led after the opening round of The Players Series Sydney but failed to make the cut, citing nerves not at the position she found herself in on the leaderboard but the people she was playing in front of.
Close to 150 family and friends ventured out to Bonnie Doon for the second round to watch Kyriacou in person for the first time since turning professional and trying to perform for them got the better of her.
“It was the first time that people had seen me play at home and I felt the pressure of playing good in front of them rather than the pressure of leading,” she said.
“I didn’t care that I was leading, I just wanted to impress everyone. I got nervous and started getting tense and it was just crap.
“By the seventh or eighth hole I’d settled in and was playing quite well but just getting a bit of bad luck.”
With a familiar format and a golf course that reminds her of host course of the ISPS HANDA Vic Open, Thirteenth Beach Golf Links, Kyriacou believes that the set-up could benefit the women in the field this week.
“I feel like the course is short for us but the greens are so firm,” Kyriacou said.
“The par 5s are reachable – every single one of them – but if you don’t get on the green it’s not an easy chip.
“The greens aren’t too quick which is good but they’re tricky.
“You have to pick a landing spot on these greens. Even with a wedge you still have to land it four or five metres short of the flag.
“It will be interesting to see the scores actually because you could definitely go low but if you’re off a little bit you can have a high score as well.”
Round 1 tee times AEST
European Tour/Ladies European Tour
Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika
Vallda G&CC, Kungsbacka, Gothenburg, Sweden
3.30pm* Jason Scrivener, Renato Paratore, Linda Wessberg
3.50pm* Maverick Antcliff, Kalle Samooja, Meghan MacLaren
9.20pm Ryan Fox, Amy Boulden, Sebastian Soderberg
9.50pm Stephanie Kyriacou, Alejandro Canizares, Lina Boqvist
10pm Scott Hend, James Morrison, Stacy Lee Bregman
10.20pm Jake McLeod, Chloe Williams, Benjamin Poke
8.30pm* Whitney Hillier, Francesco Laporta, Matthew Jordan
8.40pm* Josh Geary, Lucrezia Colombotto Rosso, Magdalena Simmermacher
Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Jason Scrivener
TV schedule: Live 9pm-2am Thursday, Friday; Live 9.30pm-2am Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 503
PGA TOUR
Palmetto Championship
Congaree Golf Club, Ridgeland, South Carolina
9.11pm Cameron Percy, Bo Van Pelt, Doc Redman
9.33pm Danny Lee, Martin Laird, JB Holmes
10.17pm Mark Hensby, Patrick Rodgers, Josh Teater
10.39pm Aaron Baddeley, David Hearn, Roberto Castro
3.10am* Greg Chalmers, Satoshi Kodaira, Ted Potter Jr
4.27am Rhein Gibson, Hank Lebioda, John Pak
Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Greg Chalmers
TV schedule: Live 5am-8am Friday, Saturday; Live 3am-8am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503
LPGA Tour
LPGA Mediheal Championship
Lake Merced Golf Club, San Francisco, California
12.26am* Su Oh, Lindy Duncan, Mi Hyang Lee
12.48am* Katherine Kirk, Ana Belac, Muni He
12.59am* Hannah Green, Georgia Hall, Danielle Kang
1.10am* Lydia Ko, Sei Young Kim, Leona Maguire
1.32am Minjee Lee, Lauren Stephenson, Amy Yang
6.54am Sarah Jane Smith, Louise Ridderstrom, Jennifer Song
Defending champion: Sei Young Kim (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Minjee Lee
TV schedule: Live 8am-11am Friday, Saturday; Live 9am-12pm Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503
Korn Ferry Tour
BMW Charity Pro-Am
The Cliffs (Valley Cse), Greer, South Carolina
9.11pm Curtis Luck, Billy Kennerly
9.33pm Brett Coletta, Paul Haley II
10.17pm Ryan Ruffels, Stephen Franken
2.10am Steven Alker, Daniel Summerhays
3.05am* Brett Drewitt, Zecheng Dou
Thornblade Club
9.11pm Jamie Arnold, Whee Kim
3.38am* Harrison Endycott, Lorens Chan
Defending champion: Rhein Gibson (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nick Flanagan (2007, 2012), Michael Sim (2009), Rod Pampling (2015), Rhein Gibson (2019)
Top Aussie prediction:
TV schedule: Live 2am-4am Friday; 11am-1pm Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 8am-9am Sunday; Live 7am-9am Monday on Fox Sports 505
Challenge Tour
Challenge de Cadiz
Iberostar Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri, Cadiz, Spain
12am Blake Windred, Paul McBride, Gordan Brixi
1am Jarryd Felton, Lukas Nemecz, Philip Eriksson
2am Deyen Lawson, Chase Hanna, Miguel Gaspar
5.20am Dimitrios Papadatos, Alexander Knappe, Niklas Norgaard Moller
Defending champion: Pep Angles
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Dimitrios Papadatos
KPGA Tour
SK Telecom Open
Pinx GC, Seogwipo, South Korea
7.50am Junseok Lee
8.50am* Wonjoon Lee
1.40pm Kevin Chun
Defending champion: Ham Jeong-woo (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Kurt Barnes (2011), Matthew Griffin (2013)
Top Aussie prediction: Wonjoon Lee
TV schedule:
Symetra Tour
Island Resort Championship
Sweetgrass Golf Club, Harris, Michigan
Aussies in the field: Stephanie Na, Robyn Choi, Julienne Soo, Hira Naveed, Soo Jin Lee, Julianne Alvarez
Defending champion: Daniela Iacobelli (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Stephanie Na
Champions Tour
American Family Insurance Championship
University Ridge GC, Madison, Wisconsin
Aussies in the field: Stephen Leaney, David McKenzie, Rod Pampling, John Senden
Defending champion: Jerry Kelly (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Stephen Leaney
TV schedule: Live 2am-4am Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 5am-8am Sunday; Live 5am-7am Monday on Fox Sports 505