Fans of Irish sport, particularly of a football persuasion will be well used to seeing home hopes dashed by Denmark and Rory McIlroy became the latest to suffer defeat at the hands of a Great Dane as Rasmus Hojgaard stunned Royal County Down by winning the Amgen Irish Open.
Hojgaard becomes the fourth Danish golfer since 2002 to win on the island of Ireland and in doing so repeats the heroics of Soren Kjeldsen on this very turf in 2015.
“Yeah, we seem to do well at this event. I don’t think there’s any explanation what does it for us. But yeah, it’s great a great win for Denmark,” said Hojgaard who moves top of the early European Ryder Cup standings and can look forward to joining his brother Nicolai on the PGA Tour next season.
“The timing is perfect. You know, I’ve set a couple goals that I want to achieve, and one of them was getting a PGA TOUR this year, and the other one is Ryder Cup next year.
“It’s going to be cool I can go over and play in America with my brother, Nicolai, now. It makes our lives a bit easier.”
Hojgaard teed off three shots behind McIlroy and was level-par for his final round through eight holes before a run of three birdies in four holes around the turn including a fortunate chip in on the par-3 10th kickstarted his challenge.
The 23-year-old’s challenge stalled with a bogey on 13 but four birdies in five holes including three-in-a-row to finish saw him power past McIlroy at the final hurdle and win by a shot on nine-under.
He had to watch nervously though as McIlroy’s ten footer for eagle to force a playoff narrowly missed.
“I was shaking in the recording. Yeah, it’s a tough one. I obviously expected him to make it. You know, yes, it’s hard to watch, but when I got in, I prepared to sign my scorecard.
“It’s so hard to win, and you know, to do it here, at this event is amazing.”
Hojgaard who was unlucky to miss out on a PGA Tour card last year as his brother Nicolai punched his ticket to the US and the Ryder Cup in Rome was proud of the mental resilience he showed down the stretch to fight off the nerves.
“I knew that I had to make birdies out there. It’s hard to force birdies on this golf course. It so happens by itself a little bit, it’s easy to say. But you know, I was trying to stay as patient and as present as possible. Sounds a bit cliché but again, it’s pretty much all we can do when you’re out there is trying to focus on ourselves and try to see if we can make birdies.
“It’s easy sometimes to get ahead of yourself and think about what can happen. So yeah, today I managed to stay very present and focus on the shots I had.”
While Hojgaard is a worthy winner and was one of the big names teeing it up in the event this week, he has spoiled McIlroy’s homecoming after the Holywood man made some more costly errors on his way to another near miss.
“I’m gutted for him, trying to win at home. But at the same time, I’m very happy for myself to come through with this win now. But I know how much it would have meant for him to win this event.
“I think the Irish Open, Northern Irish fans are some of the best in the world. I always enjoyed coming here to play. Even though they were rooting for him to win, I felt very supported.”