Karlsson aiming to capitalise on form

Sweden’s Robert Karlsson returns today to the venue, if not actually to the course, where he set two European Tour records two years ago.

Opening rounds of 61 and 63 in the 2006 Wales Open relegated Tiger Woods to second place in the Tour’s all-time 36-hole record books.

And when he then added a 65 in the third round Karlsson absolutely smashed the previous best for 54 holes, beating by three the mark Woods achieved in the NEC world championship in Ohio in 2000.

Those rounds, though, came on the par 69 Roman Road course at the resort. This week’s tournament is the unveiling of the Twenty Ten course on which the Ryder Cup will be staged in two years’ time.

A par 71 measuring 7,352 yards is unlikely to see such low scoring, especially if there is more of the heavy rain that halted yesterday’s pro-am, but what Karlsson wants most is to see his name at the top of the leaderboard again.

It is the events of the last three weeks which will be foremost in the Ryder Cup player’s mind rather than those of 2006.

Karlsson goes into the £1.8m (€2.3m) event on the back of three successive third place finishes, but while that has earned him the tidy sum of more than £380,000 he has not done what he set out to do.

The 38-year-old had the halfway lead in the Italian Open after a second round 61, but could not hold onto it over the weekend and in last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth he was four clear with a round to go and once more could not keep the chasing pack at bay.

Karlsson had a putt of little more than three feet on the final green on Sunday to go into the play-off with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Oliver Wilson.

Not only did he miss that one, he also failed with the one coming back and so had to share third spot with Luke Donald.

Jimenez almost certainly clinched a Ryder Cup place and runner-up Wilson made a massive leap towards a debut, but despite what happened on Sunday few will now be betting against Karlsson being part of Nick Faldo’s side.

He is sixth in the standings, just ahead of Wilson, who has crossed the Severn Bridge with the same determination to take the title after no fewer than seven second places to his name on Tour now and not yet a single victory.

A seven-footer on the first play-off hole would have changed that, but the 27-year-old from Mansfield lipped out.

Jimenez will be trying to deny him again this week and like Karlsson he is a former winner of the title, but the top attraction is Open champion Padraig Harrington.

The Dubliner was a non-starter at Wentworth, but is now keen to show he is in the sort of form that will enable him to challenge in the US Open at Torrey Pines in two weeks.