Peter Hedblom

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Peter Hedblom, born Peter Mikael Hedblom on ( 20 January 1970) is a Swedish golfer who turned professional in 1988 and has been playing golf professionally for 19 years now. He has played mainly on the European Tour, on which he has won two tournaments. His best season on the European Tour Order of Merit through 2006 was 2003, when he came 35th. He also has three wins on the second tier Challenge Tour. He represented Sweden in the 1996 Alfred Dunhill Cup. Hedblom won the 2007 Malaysian Open that took place in Malaysia from February 8 - 11. His score was -8 to emerge the champ.

Before his venture into golf, he was actively involved in ice hockey which is a major passion for most Swedes. He took up ice hockey when he was six years old and even broke his leg once in 2001. This unfortunate mishap came about when he participated in a yearly ice hockey game that had golfer’s duking it out with each other in the ice rink with hockey sticks and pucks instead of fairway woods and golf balls in the fairway.

On the golf front, Hedblom went through quite a dry spell that saw him not placing top in any tournament. His biggest previous golf accomplishment was his success in the Moroccan Open way back in 1996. Since then, he’s weathered through a long drought spanning more than a decade. But thanks to his latest victory, he’s overcome his 11 year slump and is all smiles again after being crowned the Malaysian Open champ and earning the US$ 215,000 prize money that comes with the title.

He was akin to a blimp flying below the radar for quite a while, but now having made his mark in the 2007 Malaysian Open, he’s all set to step into the limelight once again to prove it was no lucky fluke and he’s here to stay. Ladies and gentleman, all hail the Malaysian Open 2007 Champion, Peter Hedblom of Sweden.

For the many who were watching the Malaysian Open of 2007, it’s a safe bet that they hadn’t the faintest idea who the 6 foot, blonde Swede was or what his previous golf accomplishments were. It seemed as if he came from nowhere to emerge victorious in the 4 day tournament that took place at the Saujana Golf and Country Club’s Cobra course.

In person, Hedblom is an affable and likeable chap. His friendly demeanour is no act. He is a genuinely nice and obliging person, with fellow golfers having only the nicest things to say about the Swedish native hailing from Gayle.

Faced against the field of competitors that he was in, Hedblom had underdog stratus written all over him. From the start, he had to face the Herculean task of squaring off against the Asian and European superstars who participated in the national Open like the European Tours, 2005 US Open champion Micheal Campbell of New Zealand, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, 1997 national Open champion Lee Westwood, the big Dane Thomas Bjon and local Asian superstars like, 2005 Asian Tour number one Thaworn Wiratchant, two-time national Open champ Thonchai Jaidee and the in-form Indian duo Jyoti Randhawa and Jeev Milkha Singh. In addition to facing up to this stellar superstar line-up, Hedblom also had to contend with the sweltering Malaysian heat and the tricky Palm course famed for it’s notorious rough and tricky greens thus earning it the well deserved nickname of ‘The Cobra’ for its potent bite.

The masterful way Hedblom won the tournament in its closing days also particularly reverted everyone’s attention. He began the final day of the tournament T-6 at 4-under with three other players and was trailing the two leaders who were 7-under by 3 shots. However, in a skilful display of golfing prowess, the Swede kicked in the afterburners and shot a four-under 68 in the final round to edge crowd favourite and the player favoured to win, Jean-Francois Lucquin of France. Despite the Frenchman succeeding in capping the day with the day’s best score of 67, it was too little, too late for Lucquin and he had to concede the number one spot to the Swede by virtue of a one stroke lead.

Hedblom’s win effectively ended Asia’s hope for a five-year winning streak in the Malaysian Open after Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth’s triumph in the 2002 Open. The 2003 title went to Arjun Atwal of India, 2004 and 2005 to Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and last year’s 2006 title to Charlie Wi of Korea who did not return to defend his title this year due to other playing commitments. Hedlom also has the honour of being the second ever Swede to lift the Malaysian Open title. His predecessor was Joakim Haeggman who triumphed against Malaysia’s own P. Gunasegaran in 1994 to emerge with a final score of 279.

In the post tournament press conference following his victory, Hedblom jokingly pointed out that he had almost forgotten what it felt like to win. He was glad that he could finally end the lean spell that has been dogging him for the past 11 or so years. “Unbelievable, unbelievable. When you have not won for that long, you question whether you can win again,” said Hedblom.

“I knew that I had the game to win but you have to play good down the stretch. I went into two playoffs in 2003 and lost both of them. I worked so hard to get back and try to win a tournament and now I’ve won it. It’s unbelievable.”

Hedblom pulled clear of the pack with birdies on the 13th, 16th and 17th but caught a tricky lie with his second shot on the 18th which ended on the edge of a bunker. But he recovered beautifully and made Lucquin pay dearly for a costly three-putt bogey on the same hole, by chipping it onto the green and holing it with three putts.

“When I walked off the 17th, people were congratulating me for winning the tournament!” said Hedblom who savoured his moment of glory with his wife and child who were seen hugging him after his flight came in on the last day. “Hopefully, I can win a lot more this year.”

On the question of what’s golf and it’s challenges to him, Hedblom had this to say, “That's golf. I mean, the golf is so strange, this game. Some weeks everything is perfect; you feel good and you shoot well under par. And then suddenly, something’s not quite right and you don’t feel that good, and it shows up in the game. That’s just how it goes in the game of golf. Being off form and having off days is just another challenge to overcome. Also, another thing about me is that I'm better on tougher golf courses where you don't need to shoot 15, 20 under par, so that actually felt good coming into this week. This is the type of golf course I can play pretty good on. ”

The SK 01:58, 27 February 2007 (UTC)