Matt Cooper steps in for Ben Coley to preview the Danish Championship.
1.5pts e.w. Kristoffer Reitan at 18/1 (Boylesport 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Joakim Lagergen 100/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Adrian Otaegui at 150/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
0.5pt e.w. Marc Warren at 350/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
Golf tournament titles have always been a curiosity. The Ladies European Tour had an event in China that went by the name of the World Ladies Championship and it once had just two players from the world’s top 100 in it. It’s astounding to think anyone thought it was a remotely good idea.
Then there was the Korn Ferry Tour’s Christmas in October Classic which took place in August. Absolutely superb.
Danish events have a strangeness all of their own: not idiotically boastful, not absurdist, just wilfully banal. This week’s event kicked off as the Made in Denmark, was later known as the Made in HimmerLand and, as of last year, it was reduced to the determinedly ordinary Danish Golf Championship.
In glorious contrast, Danish golf is currently extra-ordinary. There are the Højgaard twins Rasmus and Nicolai, the experienced Thorbjørn Olesen, winners at this level such as Niklas Norgaard Moller, Jeff Winther and Lucas Bjerregaard, the promising (to different degrees) Jacob Skov Olesen, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen. The Danish golf factory is so prolific they’ve even started producing talent for other nations so there’s also Hamish Brown. No forgetting the godfather of Danish golf, too – Thomas Bjørn.
This week the country’s big DP World Tour week visits a new course – the Furesø Golfklub in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen. It was first designed by Jan Sederholm in the 1970s and then renovated by Tom Mackenzie of Mackenzie & Ebert a little over 10 years ago. I chatted to Mackenzie last week by phone and he explained that this week is quietly rather significant.
“It’s an enlightened part of the world,” he said before explaining that Denmark has restricted use of pesticides. “The club therefore has to look after the grass in a very traditional manner. We improved growing conditions and then turfed the green surrounds with fescue grass. The surrounds are as good as you’ll find anywhere.
“This will be the first-ever Tour event that’s been played on a course where no pesticides have been used for at least a decade. In terms of inland golf, I would say they’re front runners in terms of growing the sort of fescue grasses. Lots of links course around Britain have it, of course, but very few inland courses are predominantly fescue.”
On their website the Mackenzie & Ebert philosophy is explained thus: “The influence of seaside links is reflected clearly in all of our work, with a strong emphasis on the design of greens and their surrounds that thoroughly test all aspects of the short game. In the era of the lob wedge, our courses allow a far wider range of shots to be played around the greens than is the norm in modern golf. It is an approach that can work equally well in all climates and locations.”
Sometimes a club or designer can hope for conditioning but then a Tour demands thick rough around the greens. But Mackenzie says: “The Tour are 100% supportive of how we want to present the course with run-offs. The Tour just said carry on doing what you’re doing. They totally got it.”
And what of the wider challenge? From photos it looks like a classic North European parkland course. “Yes,” he said. “Lots of trees were planted when it was built. It’s certainly not forested, but there are groups of trees. They look after the course well. They’re very ambitious.”
For the tips we’ll start with Norway’s KRISTOFFER REITAN who I chatted to immediately after he thrashed a final round 60 in Austria a week after a Sunday 62 earned him a first DP World Tour victory in Belgium. He revealed that a chat with his team late last year prompted a rapid change in his career fortunes in the form of Challenge Tour Grand Final victory and with it graduation to the main tour.
“I’ve just been trying to not hold myself back and let my talent out a little bit,” he said. “That’s what me and my psychologist talked about and it has been working.” He also added: “This is all great for confidence but I can’t lean on it and think that I don’t need to work hard any more. I’m afraid of thinking like that – it’s a mindset I’m hoping to avoid.” That determination to keep the foot to the floor seems to be bearing fruit.
His last 10 starts have now included that win, two seconds, third last week in Scotland, fourth in Munich, and T13 in both the KLM and Scottish Opens. The latter result, plus T30 in the Open, read very well in terms of the quality of opposition.
Indeed, whether looking at one, two, three or four month adjusted scoring averages he keeps coming out ranked in the top two in this field. Throw in that the win in Belgium, second in Austria and fourth in Munich came on European parkland tracks, and it’s possible that although the idea of him being shorter than 20/1 this time last year seems absurd, his summer form might deserve something slightly shorter.
After taking one of the favourite we’ll go with three others at much bigger prices starting with the Swede JOAKIM LAGERGREN. Ben Coley came mighty close with the 33-year-old in the KLM Open when second and his fondness for a linksy type green surround inspired this pick.
He’s got parkland form (first and second at Galgorm Castle, winner at the K Club, third at Milano), linksy form (winner at Verdura, four top fours in the Dunhill Links) and Scandinavian form (first at Landesyd, fifth at Himmerland, fourth at Barseback). He got off to a shocking start last week in Scotland, didn’t quit, played well on Friday and ground out a T31.
Dubai’s ADRIAN OTAEGUI is not the most reliable types but he does win – five of them, in fact, on the DP World Tour. Since his most recent, in China last May, he’s been pretty poor but he did make a first cut since April last week when playing nicely in the first and final rounds.
His best results indicate an ability to play north European parkland courses (first at Bad Griesbach and Rinkven, second at Diamond, Vallda and Hanbury Manor), form on courses that have run-offs around the greens (first and third at Fairmont St Andrews, second at Lake Karrinyup and Bernardus) and event form too (third at HimmerLand). He’s also won off rounds of 80-79 in his previous start so he can overcome poor form quickly.
Finally, we’ll have a poke at Scotsman MARC WARREN who initially struggled when plunged back to the second tier after losing his card in 2023. His next 18 months of action was bedraggled, but he’s pulled himself together, showing signs of improvement this summer and it started with a final round 65 in the Danish Golf Challenge in May.
He recorded two top 10s on the Challenge Tour in June and at the start of this month spent the first 54 holes of the Scottish Challenge in the top 10 before slipping back to T21. Last week was the opposite: a final round 67 to finish T19.
He won this event at HimmerLand in 2014, was fourth there in 2023 and he also won the 2006 Scandinavian Masters across the water in Barseback. He’s worth an interest at a huge price.
Posted at 1000 BST on 12/08/25
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