HALMSTAD (Sweden), Jun 12 (AP): A female player has won an event on the European tour for the first time.
\nLinn Grant made history in amazing style, too.
\nThe 22-year-old Swede obliterated a field of both male and female golfers at the Scandinavian Mixed event on Sunday, winning by nine strokes after an 8-under 64 in the final round at Halmstad Golf Club.
\nRemarkably, she finished 14 strokes clear of the next best woman, Gabriella Cowley, who placed tied for 15th.
\n\u201cI just hope people recognize women\u2019s golf more now,\u201d Grant said, \u201cthat more sponsors go to the LET (Ladies European Tour) than to the men\u2019s tour, and hopefully this pumps up the women\u2019s game a little bit more.\u201d
\nGrant started the day with a two-stroke lead and steadily built up her advantage by making birdie at five of her first six holes, demonstrating the brilliant ball-striking and calm temperament she has displayed all week in southern Sweden.
\nShe first took a nine-stroke lead after tapping in for birdie at the par-5 11th hole and regained it with her eighth and final birdie of the round at another par 5, the 14th. She completed a bogey-free weekend for the week of her golfing life.
\nIt is the second staging of a tournament that started with 78 men and 78 women in the field, playing the same course \u2014 albeit off different tees \u2014 for one prize fund and one trophy.
\nGrant said her main aim this week was to beat the men.
\n\u201cThat was the most important thing \u2014 the whole week, I just felt it was girls against the guys,\u201d she said.
\nGrant\u2019s grandfather, James, was a Scottish golf professional who emigrated from Inverness in northern Scotland to Helsingborg in Sweden. Her father, John, played on the Swedish Golf Tour, too, and has seven wins on the Swedish Senior Tour.
\nGrant turned professional last year and won events on the Ladies European Tour in March and May, marking her out as a star in the making. In an on-course interview on the front nine, Grant said having those two wins under her belt made her feel calm going into the biggest round of her life.
\nHer boyfriend, Pontus, was her caddie this week and her mother was at the course and among those cheering Grant onto each green on a day of changing weather.
\nSwedish great Henrik Stenson, who hosted the event with compatriot Annika Sorenstam, shot 70 and was tied for second place with Marc Warren (65).
\nSorenstam, one of the greatest female golfers ever, embraced Grant beside the 18th green after victory was sealed.
\nGrant won 30,000 euros ($31,500) when winning in Belgium last month. She received more than 10 times that on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HALMSTAD (Sweden), Jun 12 (AP): A female player has won an event on the European tour for the first time. Linn Grant made history in amazing style, too. The 22-year-old Swede obliterated a field of both male and female golfers at the Scandinavian Mixed event on Sunday, winning by nine strokes after an 8-under 64 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-192919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}