It was Christopher Sahlstrom’s ninth tournament on The Gecko Tour this season, and he had already achieved two top-three and three top-10 finishes. He had also been on the verge of winning on other occasions but this time – at Valle Romano – he made sure.
An exceptional opening 62 (with a partial score of nine-under in 14 holes) set him up for his first international victory and he finished with a 36-hole total of 128 to win the 17th Gecko tournament of 2016-17 by four shots. Second was Matthew Baldwin, who broke the course record with a 61 in the second round, and third another four strokes back were Steven Jones and Andreas Andersson.
The 23-year-old Stockholm-born Swede first heard about The Gecko three years ago from a friend who had also fine-tuned his game on the winter circuit and is now playing on the European Tour. “The Gecko is the perfect tour for us,” said Sahlstrom. “In Sweden now we can’t play, the weather is generally always nice and there is competition here. It’s a great way to prepare for the season. It’s the ideal time to try new things and to add tweaks to your game.
“This year I’m going to compete again in the Nordic Golf League and afterwards I’ll try to make it to the European Tour Qualifying School. The first tournament of the NGL is at the end of this month in Lumine, coincidentally the same course that will host the European School finale. I hope it’s a cycle.”
