Five missed cuts, then a win for Switzerland's

Fredrik Svanberg on Gateway Tour

FROM THE GATEWAY TOUR WEBSITE
Missed Cut, Missed Cut, Missed Cut, Missed Cut, Missed Cut, WIN.
The script to the next uplifting sports movie? No, Fredrik Svanberg’s 2010 Gateway Tour season to date.
After missing the first five cuts in the Desert Winter Series, 27-year-old, Fredrik Svanberg, from Davos-Dorf, Switzerland, shot rounds of 68/66/69-203 (13-under) to lock horns with Matt Marshall (64/72/67-203) through 54 holes of Winter Series No. 6, before beating him on the first hole of sudden-death to win.
Talk about a way to turn your season around. “I guess I’m relieved, more than anything else, because I was kind of in a slump and it was pretty frustrating to be missing cuts,” Svanberg said in reaction to his $17,000 victory.
“Still, though, I was taking a chunk of good shots out of each week and I was wasn’t playing all that bad coming into this event.”
Linking together most of those in the same event this week, then, Svanberg made an impressive 19 birdies to just six bogeys on The Wigwam’s challenging Gold Course. But, perhaps more impressive than that, the former University of California at Berkley golfer birdied the final hole of regulation to tie Marshall, who was already in with 13-under.
“I had actually just lipped out a birdie putt on (No.) 17 and, after hitting a perfect drive on (No.) 18, I had 88 yards to the pin and hit a lob wedge to about five feet just short and straight up the hill,” referenced Svanberg of his finish. “And I finally made that one to tie him.”
The pair headed straight back to the 18th for extra holes, where Svanberg felt his best opportunity stood to win before the playoff would potentially extend on to other holes.
“We were playing (No.) 18 first, but then going to back to (Nos.) 16 and 17 if we needed to,” said Svanberg. “So, because I just had birdied (No.) 18, I felt confident playing it again, and felt that was going to be my best chance.”
As it played out, he was right. Svanberg hit another fine approach into the 440-yard closer to about 12 feet, and with just a two-putt par this time, he took the first stroke play victory of his professional career, as Marshall three-putted from just off the back of the green for bogey. A win he admits to being thankful for, it’s one he actually attributes to an improved knowledge of his clubs’ yardages from a recent visit to the Ping factory.
“I have to thank Christian Pena at Ping because about three weeks ago, I basically got a whole new set of clubs with conforming grooves,” Svanberg said, “but just last Thursday, we measured out how far each club goes and I think it just really helped me to know that and have confidence with knowing my yardages now.”
Playing for the Swiss National Team, Svanberg will play the remainder of the Desert Winter Series before heading back to his native land this spring, hoping to get into as many European Challenge Tour events as possible.
As it were, he just narrowly missed an opportunity to play in one this week; an opportunity he’s certainly now pleased to have been denied.
“I was actually hoping to get into a Challenge Tour event this week in Colombia (the Abierto Internacional de Golf II Copa Antioquia), but I’m obviously glad now I didn’t get in,” joked Svamberg.
“But, I’ll go back to Europe after this Series is over and try to play as many of them as possible. And it will definitely help to take the confidence from this week back with me now.”
Click here for full field results of Desert Winter Series No. 6 and stay tuned as the Tour takes a week off before resuming again, March 3rd-5th, at Southern Dunes GC in Maricopa, Arizona.

Jimmy Gunn from Dornoch shot 71 and 73 for a par total of 144 in this latest Gateway Tour event - but so high is the standard of play on this circuit that he missed the cut by one shot.
Gunn has made $8,054 from the six Gateway Tour Winter Series events, having missed the cut three times now.
Russell Knox from Inverness took this week off rather than play in the Hooters Tour event.
Irishman Niall Turner finished joint fifth in this week's event, earning $3,925 for a total of 208, made up of rounds of 68, 67 and 73.