“His last words to me when I dropped him at the airport were ‘whatever happens do not call me if we make the cut’’.
Robert Karlsson’s 62 during the third round of 2010 BMW PGA Championship went down in the history books as a course record at Wentworth, but the story behind it deserves its own space on the list of golf’s most memorable rounds… as one that almost didn’t happen at all.
The record-breaking, bogey-free round included nine birdies, and was all the more impressive given that it included a round-trip from Wentworth to Monaco via a detour to Paris between the second and third rounds.
And while the trip wouldn’t have happened if Karlsson had stayed around the course, perhaps the score wouldn’t have either.
“Søren Hansen said to me at breakfast that morning, ‘This trip has 63 written all over it’ and I said, ‘It could be 83’,” said Karlsson when he talked about what happened two years later.
It turned out to be even better than Hansen’s prediction, and we caught up with Gareth Lord – Karlsson’s caddie at the time – to relive Karlsson’s fateful trip ten years after it happened.
Robert Karlsson’s week at the 2010 BMW PGA Championship had already had an eventful start, having driven there from Monaco due to the Ash Cloud caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
The Swede, who had been crowned European Number One two years earlier, then arrived at Wentworth and posted rounds of 75 and 70 to finish at three over par, which he believed would see him miss the cut.
He left the course and flew to Nice, and his taxi had almost arrived home to Monte Carlo before he was told he had to turn back around and play the weekend of the European Tour’s flagship event.
“We played on Friday morning and double bogeyed the last to be three over par,” explained Lord. “A rather unhappy Karlsson, to say the least.
“We packed all of our stuff, and were convinced we’d missed the cut by one.
“We’d driven all the way here, over from Monaco because of the Ash cloud, so I had his car, his clubs and his credit card because that’s what paid for the Channel Tunnel, and dropped him at the airport and I headed back to Coventry and started watching the golf.
“By about six or 7pm I’m on my fourth pint of Guinness, and I realised we’re going to make the cut. His last words to me when I dropped him at the airport were ‘whatever happens do not call me if we make the cut’, so I said I won’t ring him, I’ll ring his manager.
“I rang his manager and told him ‘he’s going to make the cut’. Two years before he’d won the Order of Merit, so he has to come back, and he knows that.
“By the time he had landed he had officially made the cut, but had jumped in a taxi to go back to Monaco, could see his apartment and then he’s told you have made the cut, you’re off at 8.55, and we said don’t worry we’ve booked you on the same flight you’ve landed on
“He only had hand luggage, so he drives back to the airport, and then British Airways cancelled the flight back to London.
“He then managed to get to Paris, slept in the airport for two or three hours, and then had to get a private plane from Paris to Farnborough, where I picked him up. He looked dreadful, was fuming, and then shot 62, which was the course record. I think we went from first off to second to last off on Sunday.”
It ended up being an impressive, and memorable, day of golf for Karlsson, who birdied five of his first seven holes to make the turn in 30.
He then added four more birdies over his closing nine, which included a 12-foot putt at the last hole.
Reflecting a couple of years after it happened, Karlsson had said he had his putter to thank.
“It was an unbelievable round and my putter was on fire that day. I’d had hardly any sleep and only just made it onto the tee in time on the Saturday morning, so to shoot 62 and set a new course record was quite unexpected.”
He eventually finished the week in a share of 13th place after a final round 77.
