Niklas Norgaard Claims First DP World Tour Win at British Masters
DENMARK’S Niklas Nørgaard completed an emotional victory at the British Masters at The Belfry. He finished two shots clear on 16 under overall to claim his maiden DP World Tour win.
The 32-year-old carded a level-par round of 72 to secure his first DP World Tour title, with South Africa's Thriston Lawrence two strokes adrift in second. Nørgaard's compatriot Rasmus Hojgaard charged up the leaderboard with a seven-under-par 65 to take third overall on 12 under.
Matt Wallace was the highest-placed home golfer in eighth, four shots further back, while Tyrrell Hatton signed for a disappointing two-over 74 to end in a tie for 18th on four under.
"You have no idea how much it means," Nørgaard said. "I've been dreaming of this since I was 10 years old. I've had kind of a long career, just moving slowly ahead and every year getting a little bit better. I've never won on the Challenge Tour, nothing like that, so to win here for a first win I feel very good.
"I was trying not to think about it too much but this morning I almost threw up at breakfast, I was just so nervous.”
Norgaard becomes the third Dane to win the British Masters after Thomas Bjorn in 2005 and Thorbjorn Olesen in 2022.
Asked about winning the first Ryder Cup qualifying event, Nørgaard added: "I didn't even know. That's a good start. It's the ultimate goal for sure, but I've just been thinking so much about getting into the final event of the season this year. Getting into the top 50 [on the Race to Dubai] has been on my radar so I think this should secure it now.”
Who Is Niklas Nørgaard?
Nørrgaard was born in Copenhagen on May 31, 1992.
He was part of the Danish National Team and played in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy in Japan. He appeared in the European Team Championship three times between 2013 and 2015, collecting a silver medal in 2015 after losing the final to Scotland.
Nørgaard turned professional ahead of the 2016 season and joined the Nordic Golf League. In 2019 he topped the NGL Order of Merit and earned promotion to the Challenge Tour after recording one victory and six runner-up finishes.
Nørgaard enjoyed a solid 2021 season on the Challenge Tour with seven top-10 finishes, including fourth-place finishes at the Czech Challenge and the Range Servant Challenge in Sweden. He earned promotion to the DP World Tour for 2022 after finishing 16th on the 2021 Road to Mallorca Rankings, following a performance at the Challenge Tour Grand Final that pushed him up from 21st position into the graduating ranks.
In his rookie season on the DP World Tour, Nørgaard recorded top-10 finishes at the European Open, the Scandinavian Mixed and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
His win at The Belfry was his first DP World Tour success and takes him to first place in the Ryder Cup rankings.
He averages an astonishing 323.67 yards from the tee, finds 51.46% of fairways and hits 69.82% of greens in regulation. He gets up and down from the sand 56.07% of the times, averages 29.43 putts per round and has a scoring average of 70.22.
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Tags: european tour dp world tour