Joy for Caldwell, pain for Power
Jonathan Caldwell shows off the trophy. Picture: Getty Images
JONATHAN CALDWELL ordered the members at Clandeboye to “go bonkers” on his bar tab after becoming the European Tour’s latest fairytale winner with a dramatic one-shot win in the Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Annika and Henrik.
Tipped for the top when he won his card in 2009, he lost it the following season and all but disappeared into mini-tour obscurity, mixing two wins on the Europro Tour with occasional forays onto the Challenge Tour and to Q-School. Scores
For a few years, he was forced to rely on a weekend job in the Nevada Bob’s in Bangor just to make ends meet.
But after getting sponsorship from friends, he won back his card in 2019 before clinching the Holy Grail at Vallda Golf and Country Club in Gothenburg yesterday, just three days after his 37th birthday.
“Probably a bit of disbelief if I’m to be honest, it’s been a dream of mine for quite a long time, obviously,” an emotional Caldwell said after his closing birdie ended a 13-year quest for success. “A lot of hard work goes into it, so it hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but hopefully more to come. The golf club at home will probably be going bonkers, so put a tab on guys and go bonkers.”
A two-time winner of the European Team Championships for Ireland alongside McIlroy in 2007 and Shane Lowry in 2007 and 2008, he played Walker Cup with the Holywood star 14 years ago but admitted they are now living very different lives.
"No doubt I’ll see him at the Irish Open,” said Caldwell who picked up a career-best cheque for €145,160. “We’ll have a catch-up on the range maybe but Rory’s life is a lot busier than mine, he’s a busy man and he lives the other side of the world so we don’t really keep in touch.”
Three shots off the pace overnight, he knocked in six birdies in his first 11 holes, then made a 40 footer up a tier for an eagle two at the 323-yard 14th to move two clear on 17-under.
He bogeyed the 15th, but after chipping close to birdie the par-five 16th, he lipped out with a two-footer for par at the 17th to fall back into a tie with Spain’s Adrian Otaegui.
His dream looked to be slipping away when he pushed his drive into the right rough at the 18th. But the golfing gods heard his cry of “get a lie”, and he took advantage, ripping a gap wedge from 142 yards — “the best shot of my life now” — that ran down to two feet, leaving him a tap-in for an eight-under 64 to set the clubhouse target at 17-under.
Otaegui could deny him with a closing birdie or force a playoff with a par. But the Spaniard ran his 18 footer four feet past and missed the return.
“Lots of times I lost faith, but you can think like that, especially after a bad week on the EuroPro Tour – what am I doing sort of thing – but I certainly didn’t want to spend the rest of my days working in a golf store,” revealed Caldwell. “But I stuck with it and persevered, and thankfully I did.”
While he is grateful for grants totalling €101,500 from the Team Ireland Golf Trust since 2009, he was without funding from 2014 to 2019 and only got back on tour with backing from friends Bill and Karen McAllister and Bernard Eastwood.
Meanwhile, Seamus Power was frustrated to drop three shots in his last five holes in a level par 71 and tie for 19th in the Palmetto Championship at Congaree on six-under, just five shots behind South Africa’s Garrick Higgo (22) who followed two European Tour wins in April and May with victory on his regular PGA Tour debut on 11-under after a closing 68.
A bogey at the par-three 14th and double-bogey at the 16th cost Power a top-10 finish and a start next week’s Travelers Championship as Higgo watched overnight leader Chesson Hadley bogey the last three holes to finish a shot behind in a six-way tie for second with Hudson Swafford, Doc Redman, Jhonattan, Tyrrell Hatton and Bo Van Pelt after a 75.
“It was a fun week,” Power said. “A little bit of a frustrating finish there. Didn't do a whole lot wrong. Just hit it in a couple of bad spots.”
After missed birdie chances at the 10th, 11th and 12th cost him momentum, he followed a “sloppy” bogey at the 14th with a double-bogey at the 16th after airmailing the green.
“Good looks on 17 and 18, and they just kind of missed as well,” added Power. “It was just one of those frustrating days.”
As for his plans, he said: “I'm not in the U.S. Open. I won't be in Travelers now. I'm going to probably do a Monday qualifier for Travelers, look at the Korn Ferry schedule, and hopefully get a little run going this summer on the PGA Tour.”
On the Challenge Tour, Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell closed with one-under 71 to finish tied 34th in the Challenge de Cadiz on five-under, 14 shots behind Belgium’s Kristof Ulenaers (22), who shot a 72 to claim an impressive five-stroke win on his professional debut from Germany’s Hurly Long.
