Craziest Round In History? DP World Tour Pro Cards Rollercoaster 71 At Indian Open
Sebastian Soderberg endured one of the biggest rollercoaster rounds ever seen on the DP World Tour, with nine birdies and two eights at the Indian Open
They say there are no pictures on the scorecard, but thankfully for us there were pictures of the first round of the Indian Open or we'd never have believed just what happened to Sebastian Soderberg.
The Swede carded what looked a slightly pedestrian one-under round of 71 at DLF Golf and Country Club in New Delhi - but just how he got there was anything but.
A round containing nine birdies should've put him much higher up the leaderboard, but the problem was he also signed for a pair of eights along the way.
Soderberg enjoyed then endured the biggest of rollercoaster rides during his opening round - reeling off no less than seven birdies on the front nine.
However, dropped in that run was his first eight of the day - which came thanks to a triple-bogey at the par-five eighth to end his streak of six birdies in a row.
You have to credit the 33-year-old for his powers of recovery as he bounced right back following the triple to make his seventh birdie in eight holes at the ninth - getting him to the turn in a four-under 32.
From the peak to another trough as Soderberg kicked off his back nine with a bogey - just a single shot dropped this time though and two holes later his eighth birdie of the day followed.
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Catastrophe was not far away though, and it came in the form of a quadruple bogey eight on the par-four 14th hole, which must have shaken him to his boots.
Suddenly, from being four under he was back at level par, and despite making a birdie on eight of his 14 holes played he trudged up to the 15th tee having seen all of them cancelled out.
Is this the craziest round you've ever seen?! 😲Sebastian Söderberg makes NINE birdies and shoots a 71 (-1).#HIO24 pic.twitter.com/HrfHkwdlLwMarch 28, 2024
That would have broken many a golfer, even in the pros, but Soderberg is made of sterner stuff and yet again he came fighting back.
He followed that gut punch at 14 by picking up his ninth birdie of the round at the 15th to dip him under par.
That was at least something to take the sting out of the situation, as not too many players will have arrived at their 16th hole of the day having made nine birdies but being just one under.
From there the waters calmed and Soderberg managed to card three straight pars to coast to the finish line before heading off to try and make sense of what had just happened.
There can't have been too many rounds anywhere to have been so erratic, to have mixed continued brilliance with two huge disasters - as the Gary Player design showed that big numbers are lurking.
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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