Golf: Swede has some tricks up his sleeve

Joakim Haeggman arrives at the New Zealand Open fresh from finishing 18th on last year's European Tour Order of Merit, a performance that saw netted him more than $2 million. Picture / Reuters

If you spot someone juggling a ball on his 7 iron behind his back while hopping on one foot at Gulf Harbour next week there's a fair chance it'll be Swedish pro Joakim Haeggman.

The world No 52 golfer, one of the drawcards for the Holden-sponsored New Zealand Open, has developed a repertoire of trick shots.

Soon after turning pro he was one of a group of players sponsored to turn up on company golf days and press the flesh.

"I was supposed to entertain so I started learning one or two shots and the whole thing snowballed," Haeggman said from Melbourne.

"I'd learn a little bit every year. I had a little golf show for a time and it's nice to have something to give the golfing public."

There was nothing tricky about Haegmann's broken ankle suffered just over two years ago when playing with friends on an ice hockey rink.

It was not his first brush with the ice, having been sidelined for the best part of two years in 1994 when he broke ribs and dislocated a shoulder playing ice hockey.

During his second layoff, crutches, cast and all, Haeggman faced one of those life-changing decisions: should he battle back with the idea of reaching the levels which made him the first Swede to get in the European Ryder Cup team nine years earlier, or jack it in.

"It was a very black and white decision. After a few weeks on crutches and watching the boys play, that was that."

So here he is, fresh from finishing 18th on last year's European Tour Order of Merit, for which he pocketed over 1.1 million ($2 million), his best result since 1993 when he ended 15th.

There was also a third Tour victory last year, in the Qatar Masters in March, drilling a 4.5m birdie on the final hole to roar home with a seven-under 65 and pip Japan's Nobuhito Sato by a shot.

The win - his first on the Tour since the Scandinavian Masters in 1997 - was emotional, a vindication that he'd made the right decision when he'd had the cast in place several months earlier.

Haeggman keeps away from the snow and ice now. Apart from his two ice hockey scrapes, he plunged his left hand into snow when he was 14 and stretched a ligament in his thumb.

"There was a cast and I couldn't play ice hockey for the rest of that season."

Given his record that was probably a good thing, doubly so as it was during that layoff his mother took him to a golf camp.

He'd taken the game up at nine, but now things got more serious. He stayed off the beloved skates for the next eight years.

There were nine Swedes in the top 85 in Europe last year, and that doesn't include their leading player, the eccentric Jesper Parnevik - he of the inside-out visor and who lists magic as one of his big interests - who has won five US PGA Tour titles and was 40th on that Tour last year.

In the 1970s, Bjorn Borg inspired a generation of Swedes to take to the tennis court.

What about golf following suit in Sweden? Haeggman is not optimistic.

"We need someone to crack the ice so our juniors get their eyes on golf. Now you have computer games, skateboards."

Haeggman is revitalised by his successful return.

"I'm 36 this year, so it's golf, golf and a bit more golf."

He points out Todd Hamilton won the British Open last year ranked 58th, a relative unknown on the game's bigger stages.

"I'd love the chance to win a major. Not everybody gets that chance, but everybody carries that dream."

JOAKIM HAEGGMAN

* Born: August 28, 1969, Kalmar, Sweden.

* Lives: Monaco.

* Height: 1.85m.

* Turned pro: 1989.

* Pro career victories: 7 (last win Qatar Masters, March 2004).

* World ranking: No 52.

* European Tour Order of Merit 2004: No 18.

* Ryder Cup: 1993

* World Cup: 1993, '94, '97, 2004.