Rikard Karlberg

Returns to The Open after a five-year gap thanks to a second-place finish at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open on July 4.
Karlberg was born in Gothenburg. He turned professional in 2006. He topped the Nordic League rankings in 2007 to earn a tour card on the Challenge Tour. His best finish on the Challenge Tour was T4 at the 2008 Reale Challenge de Espana.
Karlberg earned his 2010 Asian Tour card through qualifying school. He won the second Asian Tour event he played, the SAIL Open. He led from start to finish at the venerable Delhi Golf Club to claim an emphatic five-stroke victory. Also finished an impressive T3rd at the Barclays Singapore Open against a star-studded field and then sensationally won for the second time at the Delhi Golf Club when he chipped in a birdie on the last hole for a two-shot victory in the Hero Honda Indian Open. Finished third on the Order of Merit and was named the Rookie of the Year. In 2011, Rikard enjoyed four top-25s.
2011 Notes: Played full-time on both the European and Asian Tour. On the European Tour, played in 18 events and was in the money 7 times. Best finish was T-15th at the South African Open. He finished 154th on the order of merit. On the Asian Tour was credited with playing in 12 events, best finish was T-13th at the Barclays Singapore Open. Finished 15th on the order of merit.
2012 Notes: Played in 12 European events and has one top-ten, 4th at the Lyoness Open. Finished 130th on the order of merit. On the Asian Tour was credited with playing in 16 events,
best finish was T-15th at the Sail-SBI Open. He finished 24th on the order of merit.
2013 Notes: Played in 17 events on the European Tour, best finish was T-4th at the Nordea Masters. Finished 130th in the Race to Dubai. On the Asian Tour was credited with playing in 12 events, best finish 2nd in the King's Cup Golf. He finished 15th in the order of merit.
2014 Notes: Played in 13 events on the European Tour, best finish T-5th at the Maybank Malaysian Open. Was 124th in the Race to Dubai. One the Asian Tour was credited with playing in 10 events, best finish 3rd at the SAIL-SBI Open. He finished 15th in the order of merit.
2015 Notes: Played in 26 events making 18 cuts. Was in the top-10, 4 times including a win at the Italian Open. Finished 56th in the Race to Dubai.
2016 Notes: Played in 21 European Tour events making 15 cuts with four top-ten finishes. Was 33rd in the Race to Dubai earning euro1,105,923. Finished 2nd at the BMW PGA Championship he was a shot back of winner Chris Wood. Was also 7th at the Nordea Masters and 8th at the Shenzhen International. Ended his year T-23rd at the DP World Tour Championship.
2017 Notes: Played in 22 European Tour events making 11 cuts with one top-ten finish. He was 122nd in the Race to Dubai with euro282,779 in earnings. His best finish was 5th at the BMW International but in the weeks after came down with the flu at the Irish Open. For months he had some form of disease or infection and with it had a build-up of mental and physical stress.
2018 Notes: After missing the cut at the 2017 Alfred Dunhill Links he was forced to shut it down. He was bedridden for six months and had a lot of different problems, but then the doctor told him the reason for his problems was depression. He didn't play at all in 2018.
2019 Notes: In January he started to feel better and practice again. He also started to feel physically well and able to work out. It took the first four months to get to the point that he finally felt he could play in a tournament. His first tournament was on the Challenge Tour in Turkey and he missed the cut. He played in the British Masters and also missed the cut. He found that his energy levels weren't quite there to get around 18 holes and found it hard to re-energize again. After a few more weeks of practice and tournaments, things got better. In the summer on the Challenge Tour in Austria, he was T-4th at the Euram Bank Open, then T-6th at the Vierumaki Finnish Challenge, and T-5th at the D_D Real Czech Masters. His energy was back and he enjoyed playing golf again. On the European Tour, he finished 6th at the KLM Open six shots back of winner Sergio Garcia. He played a few more events and ended his year missing the cut at the Portugal Masters.
2020 Notes: Played in four events, the last missing the cut at the Qatar Masters before COVID-19 shut things down. For Karlberg, it was hard to regain the momentum and in 17 European Tour starts made 12 cuts and his best finish was T-14th at the Portugal Masters and Dubai Duty-Free Irish Open.
2021 Notes: Started his year at the Qatar Masters and missed the cut. In his first 11 events, he only made three cuts before the Dubai Duty-Free Irish Open. He went to Ireland despite not officially being in the tournament. But because some players had problems coming from America, it gave Karlberg the chance to play in the tournament. Karlberg took advantage of it and finished 2nd, three shots back of winner Lucas Herbert. It was his best finish since he was runner-up at the 2016 BMW International and he earns a berth at Royals St. Geroge's playing in his first Open since 1016.