Sometimes all it takes is one golfer.
The stunning advance of women’s golf in Korea throughout the 21st century is widely credited with the initial success of Se Ri Pak in the late 1990s. Thomas Bjørn would appear to have had a similar impact in Denmark.
Last week Rasmus Neergard-Petersen became the latest Danish winner on the DP World Tour when he overcame a strong field and a fine Royal Melbourne Golf Club test to win the Crown Australian Open.
The 26-year-old had already earned a 2026 PGA Tour card that allows him to join his compatriots, Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard and Thorbjørn Olesen, in America next year (Niklas Norgaard also played there this year).
What was once a Danish trickle is now a significant flow and Neergard-Petersen, who attended Oklahoma State University, has long been considered a future contender at the highest level.
“The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching and dreaming of playing. And winning was the only thing missing from a perfect year. I’m so happy.”
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
He was a three-time winner on the second tier HotelPlanner Tour in 2024 and was immediately invited to play in this January’s Team Cup, a Ryder Cup-style event featuring teams representing Continental Europe and Great Britain/Ireland.
A DP World Tour win eluded him on the 2025 schedule, but eight top-10 finishes, including joint third in the DP World Tour Championship, helped him end the season ranked 15th on the Race to Dubai.
On the Melbourne sandbelt, Neergard-Petersen stood tall to withstand the final-round challenge of the home hero Cameron Smith. The two were tied playing the final hole but the Dane completed a nearly impossible up-and-down for par and a score of 15-under 269 while the 2022 Open champion three-putted for a bogey.
There was consolation for the locals in the form of the winning caddie Brian Nilsson, a popular Aussie veteran who had a long-term partnership with Nicolas Colsaerts.
There was also double celebration for the pair because the victory comes with an invitation to Augusta National next April.
“The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching and dreaming of playing,” the champion said. “And winning was the only thing missing from a perfect year. I’m so happy.”
Smith was disappointed but bullish after pulling up short. “It’s been a while since I’ve had this feeling to be honest,” the LIV golfer said, referring to the fact that he had missed the cut in each of his previous seven 72-hole starts in 2025. He was delighted to rediscover his form in his home Open and added that it might “shut a few people up.”
Rory McIlroy concluded his season with a round of 69 for a T14 finish. It was an eventful week for him that featured an air shot when his ball was beneath a bush, another shot that called for him to hit through a discarded banana skin, and, more happily, huge crowds that prompted him to say: “I’ve always said it, but that’s the potential this country has to have these really, really big events. The atmosphere has been incredible.”
Finally, in finishing third, fourth and fifth, respectively, Si Woo Kim, Michael Hollick and Adam Scott qualified for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next year as the leading players not already exempt for the final major of the season.
Matt Cooper