If he did not know it already, the reaction to his victory last week by his peers on the range at Wentworth Club proved to Nicolas Colsaerts that he now firmly belongs amongst the golfing elite.
Colsaerts arrived at the BMW PGA Championship after seeing off all-comers in southern Spain, where he claimed the biggest prize of his career to launch himself into the top five of The Race to Dubai and the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career.
The 29 year old from Brussels is now a genuine contender to make his Ryder Cup debut at Medinah Country Club in September – like many players near the top of the European Points List, he has been provisionally measured up for a suit – and he is also gaining more attention wherever he goes.
Colsaerts said: “Every person I’ve walked past this morning has stopped me to say “well done”. Normally they just quickly move on, but everyone has stood there and smiled and congratulated me in the most sincere way. That’s when you realise that if you handle yourself throughout the years, show sportsmanship and try to be a nice guy, you get payback at times like this.”
Having first burst onto the scene as a fresh-faced 18 year old, Colsaerts subsequently spent almost a decade in the doldrums; but the big-hitting Belgian has rebuilt his career – initially with a brace of victories on the Challenge Tour in 2009 – and is now one of golf’s hottest properties.
As such, Colsaerts has been drawn alongside Colin Montgomerie and Robert Karlsson in one of the marquee groups at The European Tour’s Flagship event, where victory would almost certainly earn him a place in European Captain José María Olazábal’s Team.
That would complete a remarkable comeback for a man who, as recently as 2008, did not have even playing privileges on the Challenge Tour.
Colsaerts himself seems taken startled by his sudden success, saying: “It’s hard to describe. I turned pro 12 years ago, and since then I’ve been through so many different phases throughout my career. So to win events like the World Match Play is such an achievement, and it’s the culmination of the hard work I’ve put in over the last year and a half.
“I sat down with my agent and coach at the start of the season, and it’s worked out even better than we could’ve thought. Being in contention on pretty much every occasion I’ve teed up so far this year is something that we probably never dreamed of. The level of all of these players now is so high, so it’s a pretty difficult task to be in contention every week. Doing it week in and week out on different continents with different opposition is quite a big ego boost for me.
“When you look at all the Rankings, it’s hard not to think that I’m part of that group now. I always thought that I could be really, really good at this game, but when you start to do it on a regular basis, then you start to really believe it.”
