It may be a cliché normally associated with football, but the term ‘it’s a funny old game’ could not have been more applicable to Per G Nyman’s last seven days in the world of golf. One week ago, the Swede carded an opening round of 82 on the European Challenge Tour, while seven days later he found himself atop the Rotterdam International Open leaderboard after a brilliant seven under par 65 at the Golfclub Broekpolder in The Netherlands.
Nyman has undergone a complete reversal of form in the space of a week. After a poor show at the Telia Challenge Waxholm, the 31 year old flew out of the blocks in Rotterdam, going to the turn in six under par 30 after a fantastic display of golf.
But for the onset of some horrendous rain, the Swede may well have bettered 65, but he was delighted with his first round given the state of his game just seven days earlier.
He got his round going with a birdie at the second and followed that up with an excellent eagle three at the third, planting a three iron just five feet from the hole. He followed that up with birdies on the sixth, seventh and ninth before the heavens opened above the Golfclub Broekpolder.
“It’s on days like these that you can’t understand what makes this game so dammed hard!” laughed Nyman. “I started last week with an 82 and then I go out there and shoot 65 today – it doesn’t make sense sometimes.
“Even on the range this morning I didn’t really know what to expect out there today, but I played great and when I look back on the round I can’t think of one time when I was outside of ten metres on the green. It was almost an easy 65 if you know what I mean.
“I had a great front nine and then made a great par save on the tenth. I hit a bad drive and had not shot to the green so had to chip into range and then hit a good six iron into the green and made the par putt. After that I thought to myself that this could be a really good round, but the rain picked up on the back nine and I was pleased with the way everything went.”
Also pleased with good first round performances were Denmark’s Thomas Nielsen, Englishman Ross Fisher, Kyron Sullivan of Wales, Australia’s John Wade and England’s Shaun Webster.
Nielsen carded a five under par 67 to lie two shots behind Nyman, while the other four aforementioned players are tied in third place on four under par.
