By Ryan Herrington
Every shot counts in golf, as the old saying goes. And so tour pros will often get creative when trying to play a wayward shot rather than take a drop and add a penalty stroke to their score. But we haven’t seen anybody get quite as creative as Joel Sjoholm did during the final round of the European Tour’s Hero Open on Sunday.

Sjoholm, a 35-year-old Swede who was a first-team All-American at Georgia State in the early 2000s, hit his second shot on the par-5 17th hole at England’s Forest of Arden Country Club way right of the green. So far right in fact that it landed on a small island sitting in the middle of the water hazard adjacent to the hole.

Able to see the ball on dry land and noticing a boat beside the green, Sjoholm decided to climb in with a few clubs and go to the island to try to play his third shot. (There are going to be a lot of things in this story where you shake your head, like for instance what is a boat doing adjacent to the hole. The best thing is to sort of ignore the absurdity to it and press on.)

Erm… Not sure how to caption this so we’ll just say what we see. Joel Sjöholm is currently in a boat to go and play his ball from an island ?‍#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/PcS3vlhERr

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

After warily getting to the island—his boating skills are a bit wanting—Sjoholm had to do a little work to give himself a reasonable chance at the recovery shot, including taking down some signage. (Also not a strength of his as you can see in the video.)

UPDATE: Sjöholm is terrible at moving signs, but has played his ball from Henderson’s island and made bogey.#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/wtW8m9ysEY

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

Eventually, he played his third shot back over the water, the ball hitting the green and rolling hot of the back side. From there, Sjoholm hopped back in the boat to get to finish up the hole. Sjoholm got on the green with his fourth but two-putted for a bogey.

You’ve done everything right so far Joel, so whatever you do, don’t fall in…#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/F7vPZTYvay

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

After the round, Sjoholm explained his mindset when he decided to take to the water.

“I always tend to find ways out of my problems. I’m a problem solver more than I’m the greatest ball-striker on earth,” he said. “I tend to find my way out of things, and I thought I’d find my way out of this as well. I sort of did. I definitely could have left it in the water or the penalty area, but we got it out and I made 6.

“I think I was much more afraid of falling into the water than of me messing up when I got to the island. I saw that some guys were playing quite good around me so I hopefully I didn’t mess something up for them because I took some time down 17. I’m sorry for that but I did what I had to do.”

We have to give a few grades to Sjoholm for this pretty amazing sequence of events:

Boat skills: C
Signing moving skills: D
Recovery shot: B-
Ingenuity: A

Sjoholm finished the round with a one-over 73 to come in tied for 22nd, nine shots back of eventual winner Sam Horsfield.

The post Watch this Euro Tour pro use a boat (yes, a boat) to get to an island and play a recovery shot appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
With his trademark plus fours and penchant for extravagant colours to match, Joel Sjöholm doesn’t exactly present as a golfer looking to fly under the radar. But that is exactly what the 32-year-old Chile-born Swede is hoping for as he eyes a return to the Middle East this month for the final fortnight of the Challenge Tour season.

Sjöholm is on the cusp of a return to the European Tour for the first time since 2013 after capturing his maiden professional title, July’s Italian Challenge Open, after nearly 10 years in the play for your mortgage ranks.

A beloved character in the UAE where he was once attached to Atlantis, The Palm Dubai, Sjöholm must finish inside the top 15 on the Challenge Tour money list to secure a main tour card for 2017-18. He is currently  19th after worryingly slipping eight spots following a missed cut at the Kazakhstan Open and nearly repeating the unwanted weekend off at the Challenge de Espana where he finished T-63 and banked just €560. But he plans to play the remaining four events of the season, two of them in China. before returning to the UAE for the 2nd Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge (Oct. 25-28) and the season-deciding NBO Golf Classic Grand Final at Almouj Golf in Muscat (Nov. 1-4)

The normally media-friendly former Georgia State University star initially declined overtures for an interview for our October issue, politely promising full disclosure only once the potentially career reviving season is done. He relented slightly, or more accurately had his arm-twisted to front a wider media gathering at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Sunday, but was again economical with his crystal-ball gazing.

“I need to dig deep to get back on the European Tour and until I get there I don’t really want to talk too much about it,” Sjöholm told Golf Digest Middle East before elaborating on Sunday. “I want it so much but I just have to be careful not to want it too much, not to get too far ahead of myself.”

Sjöholm said he was still lerning how to be more ruthless when he gets into position down the “stretch on the back nine Sunday”. A key part of that process has been learning to be more focused on and off the course as he admitted he had failed to live up to his own high expectations as a “golfer or a person”. Indeed, he admitted he had “never really regarded myself as a professional golfer” despite a decade in the pro ranks.

“I want to be more cocky on the course and more humble off it. It’s a narrow line for me.”

The desire not to jinx anything is understandable after a run of lean years bouncing between the tours. Sjöholm has career earnings in excess of €1.1 million in Europe but nearly €840,000 was banked in a three year run on the main tour from 2011, including his career best collect of €412, 376 in 2012 headlined by enjoyed four top 10s, one of them a €185,185 payday for a T-4 finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The €48,000 Sjöholm won in Sardina in July was certainly a timely boost, eclipsing in one cheque the prize-money he’d earned in six of his previous seven years on the Challenge Tour.

But it’s more what the win did psychologically, not to mention on the Race to Oman standings where he lept 93 places up to fifth at the time. The now world No. 485 had missed three successive cuts leading into Is Molas Resort but closed with a 65 to overcame a two shot deficit and win by four from overnight leader Neil Bradley (Scotland) and Chase Koepka, the younger brother of U.S. Open champion Brooks.

Often typical of a player bouncing around tours, Sjöholm only got into the Italian event on a sponsors invite.

“It feels amazing,” he said afterwards. “I never thought when I was 10 years old that I would have to wait until I was 32 before I earned my first victory as a professional. It is close to being the best thing that has ever happened to me. Obviously having children and getting married will always be the most special thing, but this is pretty incredible.”

So to, we suspect, will be the interview when Sjöholm hopefully boomerangs back on the European Tour. The dictaphone is poised.

Sjoholm with the European Tour’s Middle East Director Nick Tarratt.

The post European Tour hopeful Joel Sjöholm determined to let his game do the talking in RAK and Muscat appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.