Karlberg enjoys bright start in Malaysia

Our Rikard Karlberg had a day to remember when he eclipsed some of the biggest names in golf by opening his CIMB Classic challenge with a seven-under-par 65.

Here’s what our Black Mountain sponsored player has to say following his first round exploits at the US$7million Asian Tour and PGA TOUR sanctioned event in Malaysia.

“I just went out there and tried to be as relaxed as I can and have some fun. It’s not every day that I get to play in this kind of big tournament, and I love this track.

Even if I had missed a little bit, I managed to make up by saving shots, and also when I missed the fairways on the par-fives and needed to lay up, I made a good wedge shot and made birdies from there.

And the putting was great. I kept it going and it was nice to finish with those two extra birdies at the end.

I had a very busy schedule coming into this week, so there had been some pressure and I just stopped almost enjoying the game. I was a little bit frustrated before the two last tournaments coming into this week. But I realised that it best to just relax and enjoy myself again.

I guess that made a big difference for me. I have better body language, even if I missed a shot.

There have been lots of things going on as I’m trying to combine playing on both the European Tour and Asian Tour, flying back and forth, falling sick because of a viral infection.

All these just get you a little bit stressed out, and I realized that since I really can’t do anything about it, I’ll just try to eat and rest well and listen to the doctor’s advice.

I think everyone will have the same fighting chance this week as we are more or less about the same standard.”