Nicolai Højgaard, the 22-year-old Dane who made his Ryder Cup debut as part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team in Rome last month, ended his season in glorious fashion with victory in the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai on Sunday, a closing round of 64, eight under par, giving him a 21-under-par total of 267 and a two-shot margin over Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Matt Wallace. It meant he finished second in the 2023 Race to Dubai behind Rory McIlroy, who could only manage a tie for 22nd last week but who had got that deal sealed before the tournament had started.
There was enormous frustration, however, for Rasmus Højgaard, twin brother of the new champion. Somewhat controversially, from hereon the top-10 players in the Race to Dubai who do not hold a PGA Tour card receive one. I say controversially because critics see this as an annual cull of talent from the DP World Tour, but for sure if you’re a player you want to get one. Nicolai already had his; Rasmus looked in line to earn his until he hit his ball into the water on the final hole and could not make the birdie he needed. The ten players leaving Dubai with the satisfaction of that particular job well done were, in order, Adrian Meronk, Ryan Fox, Victor Perez, Thorbjørn Olesen, Alexander Björk, Sami Välimäki, Robert MacIntyre, Matthieu Pavon, Jorge Campillo and Ryo Hisatune. Rasmus finished 11th in that race.
Talking of races, in other sports news last weekend the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas was won by Max Verstappen. In the opinion of some people, the event was a fiasco. The winner was among the critics. He called the spectacle “99% show and 1% sporting event”. (It should be said that his opinion of it had improved after he’d won.) Among aspects of the ‘show’ was the Netflix Cup: a sort of crazy-golf competition featuring four F1 drivers and four top professional golfers – Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa and Justin Thomas. The winners were Thomas and his partner, Carlos Sainz. And the relevance of this? This was the first Grand Prix to be promoted and organised by the owners of F1, Liberty Media. That is one of the non-Saudi corporate entities interested in entering a commercial relationship with the PGA Tour. On the basis of last weekend, where F1 went full-on LIV but faster, if that happens then the new PGA Tour slogan might become ‘Golf: But Even Louder!’
Finally, back to where we came in, with a European Ryder Cup debutant from Rome. On Sunday, Ludvig Åberg, the 24-year-old Swede who was given a wild-card pick by Luke Donald despite never having even teed it up in major championship, won for the first time on the PGA Tour, at the RSM Classic in Georgia. He did it by shooting 61-61 on the weekend to win by four. Hovland looks to have serious competition to become the next male Scandinavian golfer to win a major.
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