Denmark's Niklas Norgaard started Sunday's final round at The Belfry four strokes behind and 18 holes away from realizing his boyhood dream.
He shot an eight-under 64 on Saturday to jump to the top of the leaderboard and sit at 16 under after 54 holes. A tense night lay ahead, but he persevered the next day, firing an even-par 72 to win by two strokes over South African Thriston Lawrence, who had a fine week at Royal Troon earlier this year.
Norgaard wins Betfred British Masters This is his first win on the DP World Tour. The 32-year-old from Denmark last won as a professional in August 2020, when he won the Esbjerg Open, a Nordic Golf League event.
“This has been my dream since I started playing golf at age 10. The views out here are amazing. It means the world,” Norgaard said after his win.
“I tried not to think about it too much, but I was so nervous this morning I nearly threw up at breakfast. Being out on the course helped.”
Norgaard birdied the par-3 12th and 14th holes to take a four-stroke lead with four holes to go, but then his chipping problems revealed themselves and he was ruined on the par-5 15th, where it took him four tries to get out of the greenside rough.
“I put on that show on the 15th hole and I was like, 'Did I lose there?' I'm really happy with how it ended here,” Norgard said.
“I wasn't too nervous. I'm just not good at chipping sometimes.”
Two holes later, Norgaard made a birdie putt to jump back up to 16 under, but Lawrence followed shortly thereafter with a birdie putt to take a two-stroke lead with one hole to play.
“I tried not to think about it too much, but this 18th hole could be the toughest hole,” Norgaard added.
“I was happy to find the fairway, [to have the Danish] The way the guys came to the 18th green was special.”
The other big story at The Belfry this week was surrounding LIV Golf star Tyrrell Hatton, who was leading after 36 holes. Hatton, who holds a DP World Tour card, teed up this week to get a head start on Ryder Cup qualifying. Only DP World Tour members can play on the European Ryder Cup team, and Hatton is desperate to play for that team, so he decided to tee it up this week. He also must play in four DP World Tour events each year outside of the majors to maintain his membership.
But Hatton, who finished 10 under par after 36 holes, seemed to retreat into his shell all weekend, shooting 4-over 76 on Saturday, including a triple bogey on the 13th hole and a 4-over bogey, and then 2-over 74 on Sunday. In Sunday's final round, Hatton dropped both balls in the water on the par-4 sixth hole and finished with a 4-over bogey for an eighth.
It remains to be seen when Hatton will compete again on the DP World Tour, but he needs to play two more events to retain his membership card for 2025.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
