Sports

Thursday October 1, 2009

Karlsson makes emotional return after eye trauma

ST ANDREWS: Robert Karlsson makes an emotional return to the home of golf this week, four months after being sidelined by an eye problem that made him fear for his future in the sport.

A year ago, Karlsson shot a final round 65 and then won a dramatic play-off at St Andrews to claim the Dunhill Links Championship and effectively ensure he would become the first Swede to finish the year as Europe’s number one.

Things could hardly have been going better for Karlsson at the time but the circumstances in which he defends his title from today offer a reminder of how fickle sporting success can be.

Karlsson began to experience problems with his vision in May and although the problem was quickly diagnosed as a stress-related blister on his left retina, he inevitably feared that it would prevent him from ever again playing at the top of his sport.

“I was trusting the doctor and he said my career was not in jeopardy, but at the same time you never know,” he recalled last week.

Between the end of May and the start of September, Karlsson played only 36 holes of golf. But his specialist’s assurances that the retina would repair itself have proved well-founded and he is relishing the prospect of defending his title here after returning to competitive action in last week’s match between continental Europe and Britain and Ireland in Paris.

“It was good to be back last week and I’m very much looking forward to going back to the home of golf,” Karlsson said.

“I’d never really played well around St. Andrews before, so to win there meant a lot to me. It was a fantastic feeling to sit on that bridge with the trophy last year and walk up that 18th hole when the play-off was done. It was quite emotional to win around there.”

Martin Kaymer, who along with Ross Fisher lost out in the play-off last year, misses the tournament this year after breaking three bones in his foot while go-karting in the United States.

But Fisher will be in the field and aiming to gain ground on Germany’s Kaymer, who currently leads the Race to Dubai, as the tour’s money list has been rebranded ahead of the inaugural Dubai World Championship in November.

Also in the field is Padraig Harrington, who is undergoing something of a renaissance and will be hoping to complete a hat-trick of victories in a tournament he won in 2002 and 2006.

Harrington’s compatriot, Paul McGinley, won plaudits for his captaincy as his British and Irish team comfortably beat the Europeans in Paris last week.

But the 42-year-old Irishman is determined not to be pigeon-holed as a Ryder Cup captain in waiting and is determined to use this week to prove he is still capable of competing at the highest level. — AFP

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