From playing collegiate golf to claiming a history-making amateur success and qualifying for the DP World Tour, it has been some year for Jacob Skov Olesen.
Despite only being a month into his professional career, the signs are that Denmark has another star on its hands.
In his third DP World Tour start since graduating from Qualifying School as an amateur, the 25-year-old sits one shot adrift of early pacesetter Eddie Pepperell after the opening round of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Here are five things to know about the DP World Tour rookie at Mont Choisy Le Golf.
Amateur triumph at Ballyliffin
On June 22, 2024, Olesen became Denmark’s first winner of the prestigious Amateur Championship. On what was his debut in the event, he came through the 36-hole stroke play qualifying in joint 21st place and then progressed through six rounds of match play to lift the title at Ballyliffin. He was taken to the 20th hole in the last 16 and came from two down with four to play against Walker Cup star Calum Scott in the quarter-finals, before he emerged with a 4&3 victory against England’s Dominic Clemons in the 36-hole final in Ireland. “It’s an honour, and I’m really proud to be the first Danish winner,” he said. “I guess that’s something I’ll have forever, which is super cool. I hope it can inspire someone else from Denmark to win next year or maybe some other years in the future.”
Qualifying School success
After making the cut on his debut at The Open at Royal Troon in July, doing so with 18 consecutive pars during the second round, Olesen starred by finishing tied fifth on home soil at the Danish Golf Championship. A week later he would again make the cut at the Omega European Masters after receiving an invite to compete in Switzerland, while he accumulated enough points on the Global Amateur Pathway Rankings to guarantee himself a Challenge Tour card for 2025. However, after progressing through the Second Stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School, the opportunity to accelerate his development came at Final Stage. He opened with bogey-free 65 at Infinitum Golf and afterwards said he was likely playing with the least amount of stress at the six-round marathon. But he was certainly feeling the pressure down the stretch over the Lakes Course in the final round, parring his final three holes to finish tied 20th and just do enough to secure a DP World Tour card for the 2025 season. “I think it just shows what I’ve been thinking all year – that I’m good enough and that I have the game,” he told the DP World Tour afterwards. He subsequently turned professional - thus relinquishing his invite to the play at next year's Masters Tournament - and has since made starts at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and the ISPS HANDA Australian Open and is now bidding to emulate Rasmus Højgaard by making the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open his maiden DP World Tour win.
Taking inspiration from the Højgaards
Olesen appears to be the latest in a product line of Danish talent. Despite being older than the 23-year-old Højgaard twins, the 25-year-old has looked up to both Rasmus and Nicolai over recent years as their careers have taken off with the pair boasting eight DP World Tour titles between them. He hopes to one day play his way to a Ryder Cup appearance, something Nicolai experienced last year in Italy. “I speak with them from time to time,” he said in an interview to Golf Digest. “They’re really good guys. I watch [the Ryder Cup] every two years and it's obviously something you dream of playing.”
Time in college golf
Olesen began college life at Ranger in Texas, where he was the recipient of the 2020 NJCAA Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award after finishing as the top-ranked college player according to GolfStat. He transferred to Texas Christian University (TCU) for his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons of college golf, graduating from TCU in the spring of 2023 with a bachelors in communication studies. He played his final season at Arkansas University where he earned All-America honours and formed part of Team International at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, with future DP World Tour member Wenyi Ding of China also in action.
A background in greenkeeping
Prior to heading out to play college golf in the States five years ago, he worked as a seasonal greenkeeper at Royal Copenhagen. He first started working as a greenkeeper while he was in high school to earn some pocket money, with the early finishes and location meaning he could get some practice in to further his progress as a junior golfer. “It fitted in really nice compared to having to go out to a supermarket,” he said in an interview with the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. “The work schedule fitted in really nicely with me over the summers. Obviously getting up early was a little hard, but you were done at 11:30 and have all day to practise. If I wasn’t doing that work, I’d be waking up at 10 and be done working in the afternoon. I already knew about golf, so I knew about how they would want things to look. When you play golf for a long time, you can pick up on the things a lot easier and faster.”
