After moving right into contention at the Kazakhstan Open thanks to a bogey-free seven under par opening round of 65, Lasse Jensen has revealed that he took a huge risk on the eve of the Challenge Tour’s ‘Major’ by completely changing his putting grip.
The Dane has been struggling since he was beaten in a play-off at the Barclays Kenya Open in April, coincidentally by the other player in tied second in Kazakhstan, Seve Benson.
He has missed seven cuts and his best finish has been a tied 18th place finish at the Rolex Trophy but a superb start to the Challenge Tour’s ‘Major’ in Kazakhstan may signal an upturn in fortunes and Jensen explains that it is all down to a change in his putting grip after some tips from compatriot Mark Haastrup.
“It feels great to start a week with a 65 to be honest,” said the 28 year old. “It’s very welcome to have no bogeys also and I think I have my short game and putting to thank for that.
“The last couple of months I’ve been changing around with different putters, a belly-putter and now a short putter and yesterday Mark showed me a certain grip that he has. He is a very good putter so yesterday I copied his grip and went out today and they all dropped!
“That was such a relief and it was so fun to play golf properly again, I just really enjoyed it. It was a fun day out there.
“It was a big risk, definitely, but I was in a position where I had nothing to lose because last week I played some good golf but they just didn’t drop and I finished way back.
“I thought, ‘what can I lose?’ I’m still hunting that top 20 spot and I'm in 36th place so I have nothing to lose. I'm not in a position where I can back off and relax. If I was top three I could do that now but I need to go out there and hunt the results.”
