Thomas Björn will be hoping it is a case of third time lucky as he seeks to win the first Nordic Open in his native country of Denmark having finished runner-up in his last two events on The European Tour International Schedule.
Last month Björn came agonisingly close to winning the greatest prize of them all – the Open Golf Championship – but with one hand of the claret jug, the title was cruelly snatched from his grasp over the closing four holes at Royal St George’s and the Dane finished one stroke adrift of American Ben Curtis.
The following week he was in Ireland, displaying tremendous mental strength after his Open Championship disappointment by challenging for the Nissan Irish Open title at Portmarnock Golf Club, only to be denied by Michael Campbell in a sudden-death play-off.
Having taken a week off, Björn is back in action heading the strong home challenge for the first Nordic Open at Simon’s Golf Club in Copenhagen. The arrival of the Nordic Open on the schedule reflects the emergence of Danish players on The European Tour with five different Danes claiming titles in the past 15 months and one of them, Björn, playing a leading role in Europe’s victory in The 34th Ryder Cup Matches.
Anders Hansen made his winning breakthrough when he won the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in May 2002 and a month later Søren Hansen followed suit by winning the Irish Open at Fota Island in a play-off.
Björn claimed his seventh European Tour title when he won the BMW International Open in September and in October Steen Tinning claimed a fourth Danish victory of the 2002 season when he won the Telefonica Open de Madrid.
And it was not long before Søren Kjeldsen added his name to the list of Danish champions, winning The Diageo Championship at Gleneagles in June this year in considerable style.
All five players are in action this week competing against a first class field that includes Colin Montgomerie, back in action for the first time since his withdrawal from the Open Championship after injuring his hand at Royal St George’s. Montgomerie is no stranger to success in Scandinavia being the only player to have won the Scandic Carlsberg Scandinavian Masters on three occasions.
A three year agreement has been reached between The European Tour and the promoters, Danish Golf Company, and this year the event carries a prize fund of €1,600,000. The drive to bring tournament golf to Denmark has been led by Anders Sorensen, who along with Tinning was the first Dane to join The European Tour and is now the Chief Executive Officer of Danish Golf Company. He was also Denmark’s National Coach and believes the Nordic Open is “probably the biggest sports event on Danish soil ever”.
