Larsen proves her class and Magnus makes an ace
Broch Larsen pulls up just short after stunning fortnight
After an exhilarating couple of weeks, young Dane Nicole Broch Larsen finally ran out of steam in the fourth round of the Evian Masters. After a stunning first European Tour win at the Helsingborg Open, Broch qualified for her 2nd major, just a week later.
Larsen maintained her ball striking form through three rounds, posting -7 to be just 3 shots off the lead. With her powerful ball striking, Larsen was a genuine threat until fatigue took over in round 4. “Not the final round I was hoping for, but I was really happy with my performance this week,” said Larsen who played Mizuno’s JPX850 driver, MP-15 irons and MP-T5 wedges.
“It’s been a pretty full on two weeks for Nicole,” commented Alex Thorne, Head of European Tour Operations. “It’s hard for a young player to maintain that consistency over 8 rounds – but there was still a chance that Nicole’s raw talent would see her through. She’ll be much better for the experience and now knows that her game stacks up against the best in the world.” Mizuno’s world number 3 Stacy Lewis finished one shot behind Larsen at -3.
Meanwhile in Holland at the KLM Open, Magnus Carlsson holed out during his 4th round on his way to a 64 and -15 finish. A crisply struck MP-15 iron on the 220 yard 8th hole was the 40th on the European Tour this season and aided Carlsson to 7th spot and a climb up the Race to Dubai charts.
Fellow 2015 hole-in-one maker Chris Wood switched to a set of MP-5’s for the first time and was unfortunate to miss the cut after carding a solid -2. A late improvement in scoring late on Friday pushed the cut to -3. The links style layout in Holland also convinced a few players to drop hybrids for driving irons – the eventual winner playing a Mizuno MP-H5 1 iron throughout.
In Japan, Mizuno’s Masanori Kobayashi (a qualifier for the 2015 Open Championship) also put the new MP-5 irons into the bag.