India Legends Championship: Sweden's Joakim Haeggman takes two-shot lead after opening day

Joakim Haeggman had a good start with birdies on the second and fourth shot at India Legends Championship 2024.

Sweden’s Joakim Haeggman may hail from a cold country, but he also knows what it is to play in humid Asian conditions and elsewhere. He put that to good use on Friday to shoot 7-under 65 on the opening day of the inaugural USD 500,000 HSBC India Legends Championship for a two-shot lead over the field.

Joakim Haeggman, who turned 55 two days ago, had nine birdies against one lone bogey on the Greg Norman designed Jaypee Greens Golf Course. Joakim Haeggman led American Dennis Clark (67) and was three ahead of Indians Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa, and the six-time Legends Tour winner, Brazilian Adilson Da Silva, who all shot 68 each.

With temperatures over 35 degrees celsius and high humidity, Joakim Haeggman called upon all his experience to make a great start. Opening with birdies on the second and the fourth, he dropped his only shot of the day on the seventh.

Joakim Haeggman was perfect on the Par-5s (2nd, 4th, 12th, and 15th holes) and birdied all four. He started his back nine in stunning fashion, picking up 5 shots over 6 holes between 10th and 15th holes. After being 7-under at that point, he closed with pars on the last three holes. Joakim Haeggman remarked after his round, “Obviously for me being Swedish, this is really, really hot and difficult for all sorts of reasons.

Also Read: Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa headline home talent at India Legends Championship 2024

“I would say the key was driving the ball pretty straight into the fairways and hitting a lot of good shots onto the greens and staying out of trouble. There is a lot of trouble on this golf course, so you need to hit the fairways, you can hit the greens and try to stay patient.

“I played really well. I had a really good spell of birdies here in the middle of the day.  I mean I obviously putted well. I was more or less in no trouble all day.”

He added, “I’ve been in India with the regular tour earlier with Jeev and the other guys playing here in India. I think it’s my third visit to India. But this is by far the hottest.”

Amongst Joakim Haeggman’s many wins on various Tours, one came in humid Kuala Lumpur when he won the 1994 Malaysian Open in a three-way play-off and another one came on the Legends Tour in Seychelles, also a humid place, where he won the 2022 MCB Tour Championship.

The three-time winner on the DP World Tour (then the European Tour) between 1993 and 2004, was also the first Swede to play a Ryder Cup in 1993 at The Belfry despite two career interruptions (in 1994 and 2002) because of accidents due to ice hockey.

Clark, who played with Randhawa in the same group from the tenth, birdied five times between the 12th and the 18th and turned in 5-under. Two birdies against two bogeys on the second nine, the front side of the Jaypee Greens, saw him finish at 5-under and sole second place.

Clark played on the PGA Tour between 1990 and 2000, but was winless. He ultimately found lot of success on the Legends Tour with six wins, the last of which came around 12 weeks ago at the Costa Navarino Legends Trophy in Greece.

When Clark cooled off on the second nine, Randhawa took over with a 6-under stretch in five holes from the first to the fifth, including an eagle on Par-5 second hole.

Tournament host Jeev who was 4-under through 12 birdied 2nd, 6th, 10th and 12th  before dropping a shot on the 13th and he picked up one final birdie on the 15th. He birdied three of the four Par-5s.

Jeev said, “I’ve been playing very good golf, to be honest, in the last few weeks. I’ve struggled with my short game, but it was a little better today. I’ve been working quite hard. I made five birdies, one bogey.

“That bogey shouldn’t have happened also because I was on the edge of the green. I was only 10 feet from the hole. But that’s okay. I had a lot of birdie opportunities on the golf course, which I didn’t convert. I’ll take today, tomorrow’s another day and look forward to having a good week.”

Randhawa said, “I did not start too well really, I was two over (after five), then made one birdie, then made another bogey. So it was not a good putting experience in the first nine, but then I probably got hot in the back nine and made some putts. That eagle on the second was great, I had also birdied the first. So that really kept me going.”

Five players which included Spaniard Carl Suneson, Italian Emanuele Canonica, Scotsman Greig Hutcheon, Frenchman Lionel Alexandre, and Englishman Gary Marks were tied at sixth with 2-under 70 each.

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