Biggest Turnaround In Golf? DP World Tour Pro Follows 81 With 19-Shot Swing And Course Record In India

After an opening 81 Espen Kofstad was planning for a weekend away from the Indian Open - before shooting a remarkable course record in the second round

Espen Kofstad
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
By Paul Higham
published

After a shocking opening round of 81 at the Hero Indian Open, Espen Koftad switched his flights to leave early - but then broke the course record with a brilliant 62 changing his weekend plans yet again.

The Norwegian was rightly down in the dumps after shooting nine over in the first round at DLF Golf & Country Club in Delhi - where he carded five bogeys, a double and a triple.

Golf being golf though, we know anything can happen on any given day, as Sebastian Soderberg proved with his rollercoaster first round and Koftad backed up with an epic round of golf on Friday.

After just one birdie on Thursday, Koftad hit nine of them on Friday along with an eagle to set the new course record with 10-under round of 62 - beating Shubhankar Sharma's previous best of 64.

That 19-shot improvement must be up there with the biggest turnarounds we've even seen in professional golf - with Koftad picking up eight shots on two holes alone from Thursday to Friday.

Koftad eagled the par-five eighth on Friday after making a double-bogey seven on Thursday, while he turned a triple-bogey eight on the final hole into a birdie four in his second round. 

Not many players will shoot a course record 62 and still even be in sight of the cut line, but at one under for the tournament Koftad is set to make the weekend right on the number as the second round ended early due to the weather.

"I'm still shaking a little bit, today was just unbelievable, just everything came off," Kofstad said after his round.

"I holed so many putts. I've no idea how many feet I've holed, but it's been quite the day.

"I've been working a lot on the range lately and I've been feeling like I'm very off coming back from injury.

"Everything's been feeling horrible for the longest time, and yesterday just everything went wrong.

"And then this morning it felt really nice and suddenly the birdies just started rolling in when I started playing."

And while the stunning turnaround is great news for Koftad on the course, it's upset his travel plans for the second time this week.

"I changed my flights last night to go home tomorrow, so I'm going to have to change them again!"

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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