It's tough beating Jesper Parnevik on the course outside the
Swedish capital where he honed his game as a youngster and still
plays when he's home.
Parnevik beat Garcia by three strokes, carding a 4-under-par 68
to give the Nordic All Stars a 3-3 tie with the Rest of the World
after Monday's first round in the SAS Invitational.
Two matches started played simultaneously in the three Nordic
capitals of Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Helsinki,
Finland.
The final six matches, also under the medal match-play team
format, will be played Tuesday in Oslo, Norway, on a course with
famous ski center Holmenkollen as backdrop.
Mark O'Meara, the 1998 Masters and British Open champion who is
the World team's captain for the third straight year, lost by five
strokes (69-74) to Sweden's Robert Karlsson in the other match in
Stockholm.
Parnevik, who edged Tiger Woods 2 and 1 on the same Ullna course
last year when the tournament format was match play, took the lead
early against Garcia in a match that was the last to finish in the
three Nordic capitals.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, who was Parnevik's partner in the
Ryder Cup matches outside Boston last year when the United States
edged Europe, made a late charge when he holed long birdie putts on
the 13th and 14th holes.
But Garcia dropped a shot on the 16th, a spectacular par-3 along
the lakeside. Garcia's tee shot went right, into the trees. He
chipped past the green and two-putted for bogey.
``I didn't want to beat him in his own country, so I just tried
to get close to him (toward the end) and let him win,'' Garcia
joked.
Parnevik played with hip pain that also bothered him in the
British Open last week at St. Andrews in Scotland, where the former
two-time Open runnerup tied for 36th with Garcia and four others.
``When this event is over, I'll rest one week until the
Scandinavian Masters in Stockholm,'' Parnevik said. ``I will also
probably take one month off from the PGA Tour after the PGA
Championship.
The last major is scheduled Aug. 17-20 at Valhalla in
Louisville, Ky., a course designed by Jack Nicklaus where Parnevik
did well in the PGA Championship a few years ago, missing a playoff
by only two shots.
In Copenhagen, the Nordics dropped both matches. British Open
runner-up Thomas Bjorn of Denmark lost to last year's British Open
champion Paul Lawrie of Scotland 66-71 and Retief Goosen of South
Africa edged Norway's Per Haugsrud 70-71.
There were splits in Helsinki, with Sweden's Patrik Sjoland
routing Carlos Franco of Paraguay 67-74, and two-time Masters
champion Bernhard Langer of Germany beating Finland's Anssi
Kankkonen 69-72.
