Marcus Helligkilde became the third Dane to be crowned Road to Mallorca Number One after securing a memorable victory at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A.
Helligkilde’s remarkable season began with a second place finish at the Range Servant Challenge by Hinton Golf as Scotland’s Craig Howie secured victory, before his maiden Challenge Tour title arrived at the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge. The Dane carded an opening round of 61 at Vierumäki Resort and followed this with rounds of 67-66-71 to finish on 23 under par, two shots ahead of Sweden’s Jesper Svensson.
The 25-year-old continued to impress throughout the season with a tie for second at the B-NL Challenge Trophy after Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia came out on top on the seventh play-off hole. Helligkilde then received an invitation from the top tier to play in the Dutch Open, where he finished in a tie for 12th, before recording his second win of the season at the Swiss Challenge.
The Dane finished on 25 under par to secure victory in a low-scoring week at Golf Saint Apollinaire, where Spaniard Alejandro Del Rey made history by posting a 14 under par second round of 58 – the lowest-ever score to par on a major golf tour. Helligkilde recorded a second placed finish at the Challenge Costa Brava and arrived at the Rolex Grand Final in third position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
The 25-year-old carded rounds of 69-67-68-72 at the season finale, which included a miraculous shot from under a tree to save par on the 72nd hole to finish on an eight under par total and win the Rolex Grand Final by one-shot. Helligkilde subsequently leapfrogged Ricardo Gouveia and Santiago Tarrio on the Rankings to become the third Challenge Tour Number One to hail from Denmark after 2018 Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn in 1995 and 2018 Rankings winner JB Hansen.
