Sweden’s Ellinor Haag was able to hold onto her lead from the first day to win the Big Green Egg Swedish Matchplay Championship qualifier.
Nordic Golf Tour hosts the unusual format at the Johannesberg Golf Club where the top 16 players progress into the main competition.
The field of 58 players competed in the second 18-hole qualification today with matches over six holes within the group of four.
Winning a hole gave the player one point, a shared hole gave two points, and a lost hole got three points.
The 28-year-old Swede scored 27 points on Thursday and added 34 points to her total today, which gave her an advantage of two points over second place.
Two players are tied for second with total of 63 points, France’s Emilie Alonso had 35 points after the first day and added another 28 points today after she didn’t lose a single hole.
She said: “I almost lost 18 but made a very nice downhill putt. I did some math before the round today and I needed to beat the course by 4 points. I was so tired in the morning, so I just said to myself I would play one shot at a time. I ended up making six birdies and shot -4.”
Joining Alonso in second place is a fresh professional Corinne Vidén from Sweden. The recent Sacramento State graduate had two balanced rounds of 32 and 31 points, respectively in qualification.
“I’m excited to play on the weekend, I played well the first two rounds. I’m trying to focus on my own game as I pursue a more aggressive game plan than usual. After understanding the point system, I really enjoyed it. I think match play is so much fun and would love to play more professional tournaments like this,” Vidén said.
“This is the first LETAS tournament in Sweden this year, we are all trying to learn the Covid-19 rules and restrictions. But I believe the tournament directors have done a great job with informing us and hosting a professional event.”
Only the top 16 players qualified to day three with no ties making it through and a playoff with four players was held to decide the 16th player.
Sweden’s Amanda Lindahl won the play-off for the final spot over fellow Swedes Amanda Jakobsson and Isabell Ekström, and South Africa’s Casandra Hall.
The main match play tournament starts on Saturday with the last 16 in the morning and the quarterfinals in the afternoon. The semi-finalists and finalists will play another 36 holes on the final day on Sunday.
Keep up with the scores – here.
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