Thomas Björn admits he has high hopes for Denmark’s talented new generation, which he will see at first hand this week when he hosts the ECCO Tour Championship presented by Thomas Björn and Mercedes Benz in his homeland.
The two-time Ryder Cup player, one of the European Challenge Tour’s greatest success stories, is helping to give Denmark’s next crop of young players the chance he made the most of 16 years ago.
Björn won four times on the Challenge Tour in 1995 en route to topping the Rankings that year and has never looked back, going on to play in the 1997 and 2002 Ryder Cups and capturing 11 European Tour titles, the latest of which came in this year’s Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy.
The 40 year old, who finished fourth in The Open Championship last month, flew straight from the US PGA Championship in Atlanta to host this week’s event at Lübker Golf Resort, in Nimtofte, highlighting exactly how much the Challenge Tour means to the Great Dane.
“The Challenge Tour lies close to my heart, it always has,” said Björn, who was the first ever Dane to represent Team Europe in the Ryder Cup and acted as vice-captain to Colin Montgomerie in The 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
“It was a huge stepping stone in my career and I always believed that it’s important to continue to try and help grow this tour. It’s the breeding ground for what we professionals do.
“There has always got to be a tour that provides for players and develops them into strong European Tour players.
“There’s a massive step from amateur golf to professional golf. When you’re an amateur you always have federations and people behind you and then when you step in to the professional game it becomes a different kettle of fish and you have to start doing things on your own.
“This is a great place to do it because it’s not too complicated, but you’ve got to find your way around the world, you’ve got to learn to be on your own and deal with things on your own.
“Off the golf course there’s nobody else, just you. It’s a big part of life as a professional and it’s the best place to learn it.”
Björn’s own success on The European Tour this season – he is currently 15th on The Race to Dubai – has been complemented by the performances of some of his compatriots.
Anders Hansen finished third in the US PGA Championship last week and sits sixth on The Race to Dubai, while Thorbjørn Olesen, a product of last year’s Challenge Tour, is on course to win The European Tour Rookie of the Year award after nearly claiming his maiden title in the Alstom Open De France, where he missed a short putt to take Thomas Levet into a play-off.
With another Dane Andreas Hartø winning last year’s ECCO Tour Championship as an amateur before progressing onto The European Tour via the Qualifying School, Björn is looking forward to seeing more Danish exciting young players emerge from the Challenge Tour.
“We’ve got a lot of talent coming through and a lot of successful players on the main tour and I think it is important to have a Challenge Tour event in Denmark,” he said.
“There’s some good young prospects in Danish golf at the moment, but I think you see that everywhere and certainly on the continent there’s a big battle going on between the countries to produce player and get people out there to the main Tour and the smaller countries are getting stronger and stronger and that just grows the tour.
“The link-up for this tournament comes from my relationship with ECCO that’s been going on for more than 10 years, I had my own Challenge Tour event in 2005 and 2006.
“Now there’s an opportunity to join together with ECCO because they’ve had this tournament for a while and it’s a natural part of what we do together.”
