ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | A three-time champion on the Nordic Golf League, Niklas Nørgaard has been a professional golfer for more than eight years and a member of DP World Tour for the past three seasons. And yet, even at the start of 2024, the big-built Dane was having self-doubts about how he’d react to Sunday pressure if he got into the leader group.
“I played weekends in some tournaments last year, and I thought I had no idea how I would ever play good golf on Sundays,” said the 32-year-old from Copenhagen, who graduated to the DP World Tour from the Challenge Tour in 2022. His best results in a consistent 2021 season were a couple of fourth-place finishes. The year after, he broke 70 only four times in 17 final rounds on the main tour.
“I was afraid I would not be able to handle it,” he said. “I have consistently improved as a player the last few years, but I hadn’t exactly faced the challenges of a final round when in contention.”
The moment of truth finally arrived for Nørgaard at the Soudal Open, held on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium, in May. He played in the leader group and finished birdie-eagle-par for a tied second place.
Pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being in contention, Nørgaard found himself playing in the last group again in his next tournament, the European Open, where he finished fourth. He then won the Betfred British Masters at The Belfry in September and, three weeks later, tied for seventh at the BMW PGA.
The world No. 96 was in contention again last week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship here at Yas Links, where he secured another top-10 with a 19-under-par finish. He is now eighth in the Race to Dubai and is almost guaranteed one of 10 PGA Tour cards on offer for DP World Tour players in 2025.
“From feeling like a guest in these tournaments a year ago, I feel more at home now. I think Belgium, followed by the European Open in Germany, changed everything for me,” Nørgaard said.
“I hit some good shots over the last three holes in the Soudal Open under pressure, and it just snowballed after Munich. I realized that I actually enjoyed being out there on Sundays and battling for the title. I found a way to do it, and also found out that I was capable of doing it.
“I am not sure what excites me about Sundays. I guess it’s just that all the shots you practiced at the driving range, the small fades, the high draws, it feels so good when you can pull those off on the golf course under Sunday pressure. That’s what I love most about Sundays. It’s as much a battle against yourself as it is against the field and the conditions.
“Having said that, I hate the time you spend outside the golf course on Saturday evening to your tee time in the final round. I felt so nervous on Sunday of the British Masters, I almost threw up my breakfast in the dining hall. I only felt better once I reached the course and started hitting balls.”
“I didn’t produce a lot of speed early in my career, so I worked really, really hard on it. And when I finally got my speed up, there was a lot of dispersion. So, I had to work hard again to get control over the ball. It’s just these last couple of years I’ve tightened that dispersion.”
Niklas Nørgaard
At 6-foot-4, the muscular Nørgaard is built like a Norse god. And he shows it on the golf course with his booming drives that can shrink most golf courses. With ball speed reaching 190 mph, he ranks third in driving distance this year at 323.3 yards after finishing second in 2023 and third in 2022.
The area where the Dane has improved each year is his driving accuracy. In 2022, he found 45.75 percent of fairways off the tee, improving to 50.66 percent in 2023 and 52.7 percent this year.
“I have a bit of an advantage as I am a tall person and speed is something that I have worked on from my early amateur days,” said Nørgaard, who works with Danish national head coach Thomas Larsson.
Nørgaard will be part of a large Danish group on the PGA Tour next year. Nicolai Højgaard has kept his card, and there is every likelihood that he will be joined by twin brother Rasmus (third in Race to Dubai), Nørgaard (eighth) and perhaps Thorbjørn Olesen (12th).
“I can’t wait to get there,” Nørgaard said. “It’s going to be a good test for my golf. My only past American experience is when I spent a few months in San Diego as part of a foreign student exchange program when I was a 16-year-old. I played a lot of golf that time, but this would obviously be different.
“Looks like Ras should be there. Thor [Olesen] has a good chance as well. It would be fun to have our own little Danish group and have dinners together. I am very excited about the opportunity.”
Nicolai Højgaard, world No. 55 and a member of Europe’s victorious 2023 Ryder Cup team, said Nørgaard had the game to make a huge impression across the Atlantic.
“The thing about Niklas is that he is an extremely hard-working player, and I have lots of respect for him just because of that,” Højgaard said. “He has been a late bloomer, but he is a world-class player now, and I have no doubt he will have plenty of success in America.
“He can overpower any golf course with the way he drives. All of us have something to improve on in this game, and in his case, it would be his short game.
“I look forward to having Ras, Niklas and Thor in America. And those dinners he spoke about, they are important to us. We tend to feed off each other, and the dinner table is a great place to have plenty of conversations that are good for all of us.”
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Top: Nørgaard's speed is up, as well as his confidence.
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