Niklas Nørgaard of Denmark began Sunday’s final round at The Belfry with a four-shot lead, 18 holes away from achieving his boyhood dream.
He soared up to the top of the leaderboard with an 8-under 64 on Saturday, sitting at 16-under through 54 holes. A nervous night was ahead of him, but he persevered the following day. Nørgaard posted an even-par 72 to win by a pair over Thriston Lawrence, the South African who had a phenomenal week earlier this year at Royal Troon.
Nørgaard’s win at the Betfred British Masters is his first win on the DP World Tour. The 32-year-old from Denmark last won professionally in August 2020, when he won the Esbjerg Open, an event on the Nordic Golf League.
“Since I started playing golf at 10, this is what I’ve been dreaming of. The scene here is something. It means the world,” Nørgaard said after his win.
“I was trying not to think too much about it, but this morning, I nearly threw up at breakfast because I was just so nervous. It helped being out on the course.”
Nørgaard had a four-shot lead with four holes remaining after making birdies on the 12th and 14th holes, both par-3s. But he then made a mess of the par-5 15th as his chipping woes reared their ugly head. It took him four tries to get out of the greenside rough.
“I made that show at hole 15 and thought, ‘Did I give it away there?’ I’m just very happy with how it ended here,” Nørgaard said.
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“I wasn’t very nervous there. I’m just very bad at chipping sometimes.”
Two holes later, Nørgaard rolled in a birdie putt to jump back up to 16-under, immediately after Lawrence poured in a birdie putt of his own. That gave him a two-shot lead with one hole to play.
“I tried not to think about it too much, but this 18th hole can get the most of you,” Nørgaard added.
“I was just happy to find the fairway, and then [to have the Danish] guys coming on to 18th green was special.”
The other big storyline from this week at The Belfry revolved around Tyrrell Hatton, the LIV Golf star who held the 36-hole lead. Hatton, who still has a DP World Tour card, teed it up this week to get a jump-start on Ryder Cup qualifying. Only DP World Tour members can play on the European Ryder Cup team, which Hatton desperately wants to play on, hence his decision to tee it up this week. He must also play in four DP World Tour events annually outside of the majors to retain his membership.
But after posting a 10-under score through 36 holes, Hatton looked like a shell of himself over the weekend. He shot a 4-over 76 on Saturday, which included a triple-bogey on the 13th and four over bogies. Then, on Sunday, he could only muster a 2-over 74. During Sunday’s final round, he hit two balls in the water on the par-4 6th hole, leading Hatton to make a quadruple-bogey eight.
When Hatton tees it up again on the DP World Tour remains to be seen. But he needs to play in two more events to keep his membership card for 2025.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
