Staff WriterThe Danish Golf Championship isn’t just another stop on the DP World Tour for Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen — it’s a homecoming with fairways he could navigate blindfolded.
This week, the 26-year-old tees it up at Furesø Golf Klub, the course where he learned the game as a boy and where last year he was named an Honorary Member. Now, he’s aiming to turn that familiarity into a career-defining victory.
“I started here very young,” Neergaard-Petersen said. “My earliest memory was with my Dad when I grew up, doing some winter training with the local professional around five or six.
Fond memories and I’ve played club championships and that kind of stuff. Looking back over the 15 years, I never thought we’d have a DP World Tour event right here in my back garden. It’s quite special. I can see there being some extra nerves on the first tee tomorrow but then settling into the round and it being business as usual.”
Fresh off a tie for 12th in his U.S. Open debut at Oakmont, Neergaard-Petersen arrives in Copenhagen’s northern suburbs with the confidence of a man who’s already made headlines this year. He’ll need it. The field for the Danish Golf Championship is stacked with homegrown talent and international heavyweights.
Leading the local charge are Ryder Cup hopefuls Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard, eight-time DP World Tour winner Thorbjørn Olesen, and Niklas Nørgaard — who will defend his Betfred British Masters crown next week.
Adding more firepower are 15-time Tour winner and 2018 Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn, Lucas Bjerregaard, Jeff Winther, and 2024 Amateur Champion Jacob Skov Olesen.
From outside Denmark, the competition includes 2018 champion Matt Wallace, who’s also eyeing a late Ryder Cup nod from captain Luke Donald, defending champion Frederic Lacroix of France, and 2018 Open champion Francesco Molinari — who famously tamed Carnoustie.
For Neergaard-Petersen, though, this week is as much about the people as the golf. “This year with the results I’ve had, there’s more buzz and more interest the couple of times I’ve been here during the year,” he said.
“There are times where I’ve been practising my putting and people come up and talk and ask questions, say they are following along. It’s new to me, but cool to see the support.
“It’s also really important that I just enjoy it. You never know if it’s going to happen again, or how long it’s going to be. So just enjoy the atmosphere. It’s not the biggest piece of land and with the forecast we have, there should be a lot of people coming. It’ll feel quite intimate out there. I’ll try and soak it all in and enjoy it.”
Whether the week ends in a trophy lift or a quiet walk back to the clubhouse, one thing is certain — the Danish Golf Championship has never felt more like home.
