General / Editor / 19 March 2007 /

No golfer from Scandinavia has ever won a Major championship in the history of the game, but that statistic could be set to change in the near future if current trends continue.

The European Tour, and European golfers in particular, has experienced a renaissance in recent years and the Scandinavian countries have been at the forefront of the resurgence in the game on this side of the Atlantic.

With the help of the likes of Thomas Bjorn, Jesper Parnevik, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Niclas Fasth in the last five years, Europe recorded a historic hat-trick of victories in the Ryder Cup.

There are also signs are that things are going to get even better for the Nordic players in 2007, with Stenson already having won twice against world-class fields and Finland's Mikko Ilonen having burst onto to the stage with his maiden tour win in Indonesia.

Sweden have long been a major force in ladies' golf with Annika Sorenstam having dominated all over the world since the turn of the millennium, and she has received more-than-adequate back up from Solheim Cup stars Helen Alfredsson, Sophie Gustafson, Catrin Nilsmark and Carin Koch.

While it would be foolish to suggest that the present group of Swedish men can achieve the same dominance that the ladies have, they are still an ever-growing influence in the game across the globe - with Stenson at the helm.

In winning the Dubai Desert Classic and WGC Accenture Match Play Championship this year, the 30-year-old rose to number five in the world rankings to overtake Parnevik as the most successful Swedish man ever.

The eccentric Parnevik twice finished second in the British Open, in 1994 and 1997, on his way to reaching number seven in the world and was also a pacesetter in winning a tournament on the PGA Tour - at the 1998 Phoenix Open.

But hopes are high that Stenson can surpass his achievements, and those expectations will only have been raised by his outstanding start to 2007.

Stenson has always had enormous potential but, under the guidance of coach Pete Cowen, has really put things together on the course in the last three years, and is now as short as 1.94 to win his first Order of Merit title.

If Stenson doesn't break the Scandinavian duck in the Majors though, there are more than enough players willing to take his place - with Karlsson, Fasth, Bjorn and Johan Edfors top of the list.

Karlsson first came to prominence when he won his first European Tour event in 1995 and only narrowly missed out on an automatic qualifying place for the 1999 Ryder Cup. But it is over the last 18 months that he has really made progress to break into the world's top 30 players.

The 37-year-old won twice on tour in 2006 on his way to finishing fourth in the Order of Merit standings, and played a full part in Europe's Ryder Cup success last year.

While he has not had a spectacular start to 2007, he is still inside the top 20 European players for the season and is expected to be a major contender when the tour switches back to Europe in the coming months.

In contrast, Fasth has made a much quicker start to the 2007 campaign and finishing joint third in Dubai and beating Retief Goosen at the Accenture event will leave him in good heart for the big tournaments ahead.

Fasth has won twice on tour in the last two years and it would be a surprise if he were not challenging for further honours in this year, while only Paul Casey matched the big-hitting Edfors' feat of three wins last season and he is fancied to continue grabbling the headlines.

With Peter Hedblom and Peter Hanson also making eye-catching starts to the new season, Swedish golf could not be much healthier at the moment.

But they are not the only Scandinavian country making an impact in the game at the moment, and few have done more to further the cause of golf in their home country than Bjorn in Denmark.

Never shy to make his feelings known on or off the course, Bjorn has been one of the leading figures on tour in recent years.

Few can forget his heartbreaking defeat in the British Open at Royals St George's in 2003, when his failure to get out of a bunker cost him the title in 2003.

But, on the other hand, few players would have been able to overcame a first round 78 to battle back and win last year's Irish Open.

Capable of anything from the sublime to the ridiculous, Bjorn has been an inspiration to people back in Scandinavia, and his joint-second at the 2005 US PGA Championship shows that he could yet achieve his dream of winning a Major.

With the likes of Anders Hansen, Sopren Kjeldsen and Ilonen, Scandinavia looks to have a rosy future ahead on the European Tour.

This is mirrored in America, where Swedes Carl Pettersson and Daniel Chopra have joined Stenson in making a name for themselves in recent years.

Pettersson, who went to college in America, has wasted no time in making an impact on the PGA Tour, following up his maiden success in 2005 with victory at last year's Memorial Tournament.

At the age of 29, he has time on his side and more exciting things seem to lie ahead of him, as is the case with Chopra.

His compatriot is yet to record his first win in America, but finished second at the 2006 Frys.com Open and is improving with every year.

Chopra was the top-ranked putter on the PGA Tour last year and he is already putting his outstanding short game to good use in 2007, finishing joint-eighth at this month's Honda Classic but just two strokes off the four-man play-off won by Mark Wilson.

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