The 2011 season has certainly been a break out year for Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts and he is the subject of the fourth instalment of our series looking back at the great and good to come from the Challenge Tour over the past decade or so.
Having won the Volvo China Open in April of this year, he has gone on to finish highly in a number of tournaments – most notably of which when he lost out in the semi-final of the Volvo World Match Play to Ian Poulter in extra holes.
It has not always been plain sailing for Belgium’s number one, though, as after having graduated from the Challenge Tour in 2002 with a lot of expectation on his shoulders he fell off the European Tour in 2008 and back to where it all started. European Tour Weekly joined him in Brussels on the eve of the Telenet Trophy at Royal Waterloo, his home club in May of 2009.
“It is a fine place to live as it has all the advantages of all the other European capitals except it has less traffic and it is cheaper,” said the Belgian, clearly revelling in being home. “There are a lot of parks, a lot of monuments, a lot of museums and the people are very nice. It really has it all.”
Colsaerts has not always found it easy though as Belgium’s sole representative on the European Tour, and the pressure of that, and his impressive amateur career, has taken its toll.
“I’ve been the only Belgian on Tour for a couple of years and it is always more difficult when you are on your own, even though I hang around with the French guys all the time. If there were two, three, four of us that would be best.”
But being back on the Challenge Tour after five years away, Colsaerts has really noticed the improvement in the standard of play and on the eve of the final round at the Telenet was keen to impress the home fans.
“Looking at the Challenge Tour now the guys play much better than I remember in 2002 and I have felt comfortable straight away since coming back to it,” said a confident Belgian. “I don’t think I’ve really shown what I can do. There is one more (round) to go here and I’ll just go for it tomorrow and show that I’ve still got it.”
Colsaerts would not quite get into a title challenge on Sunday, finishing in a tie for eighth, but 2009 would prove to be his only season back on the Challenge Tour as wins at the SK Golf Challenge and Dutch Futures saw him finish third on the rankings and heading back to the European Tour in 2010.
Click here to watch the video in full.
