Nick Bachem won his first DP World Tour title in just his 12th event as he lifted the trophy at last week's Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa.
Here, we reveal some things you may or may not know about the charismatic German after catching up with him the day after his victory party, attended by 160 people at his home club.
Nick's dad Frank is a keen golfer who introduced his son to the game at the age of five
My dad played but just for fun. As a normal five-year-old kid who wants to play sports all the time I picked up the clubs and hit it against everything, so my dad took me to the golf club so I could hit golf balls and not all the stuff in the house and the garden. My first golf club had a lot of kids just a little bit older than me and I built a lot of friends, being there all the time when I wasn't at school and in the holidays.
He started working with his coach Peer Sengelhoff at Marienburger Golf Club at the age of nine and still has the same coach today
I moved to Marienburger Golf Club when I was 12 but I started practising there when I was nine or ten with Peer Sengelhoff. He was the first real golf coach I had and still the only one. All the coaches from the national team have also helped me so much along the way but my main coach was Peer which is so nice because he also showed me how to enjoy the game and be happy while playing golf. He was kind of like a dad and growing up together was so much fun. When I go back to the golf club, it's so nice to see all my friends when it's not about doing everything like a professional. I love the game so much and have a great time with great people on the golf course and the passion for the game is so big when I'm at home with joy in playing and practising. It's so funny to all of us that it's working out so well the way we do it and that for me is the best part of now playing on Tour and winning on Tour, for me and the whole golf club to see that we don't have to be someone else. We just have to do it how we like it and do it with the most fire and passion and love for the game and just enjoy it as much as possible.
He was a member of Germany's winning squad at the European Amateur Team Championship in 2020, shooting a 71 in the stroke play and securing three points from three in the foursomes
I can't compare anything to winning that event for the first time for Germany. Having three best friends there and doing it together and with the coaches and the whole team who had been together since we were 13, it was so special to all of us. Winning in a team event is so much more fun. I'm still in touch with Matti Schmid, Jannik de Bruyn and Marc Hammer. Jannik and Marc are going to make it out here as well for sure because I'm definitely not much better than them. It would be a dream scenario to be out here with them, travelling together again and having the same feeling we did when we were travelling the world at 16 playing all the big amateur events. It feels like a dream travelling the world and playing golf with your best friends. I was super lucky being an amateur in Germany in such a crazy successful time, seeing all the other boys winning thousands of tournaments and the juniors right now they keep on doing it and keep on winning all the junior events in Europe. Having Matti winning everything and having such great competition and so many friends in amateur golf. We grew up together and got better together and then winning tournaments together and fighting for big tournaments against your best buddies makes it feel a bit easier. When I was 18, it felt so hard to make it to the Tour because we had a lot of good amateur players but none of them made it to the Tour. Now I see all the boys coming out here and playing well and having so many Germans on the Tour and seeing them winning just makes it so much easier to feel like you have a right to be out here and to win out here.
He keeps a lucky lion on his golf bag
I've only had it for two events now so it seems like it's working! When I go to South Africa I'm super into animals and nature and I like watching documentaries about lions, so my girlfriend gave me a little lion as a lucky charm, it's on my bag. I've had it for the last two events so I think I might keep it!
He loves surfing and spent lots of time in the water in South Africa before his win
I started in France on family holidays. My sister Cara and my parents always went to the ocean and we were close to a surfing school near Bordeaux and Le Canoë. I picked up my first surfboard there when I was around seven and we went surfing for six hours every day in the holidays and I fell in love with it. I try to go surfing as much as possible, driving in the camper van down the coast from west France into Portugal and surfing the coastline down there. It's great to have a passion that isn't golf and to get away from golf - standing there in the morning watching the waves, drinking a coffee and thinking about nothing else other than surfing. My girlfriend surfs as well, she was in Jeffreys Bay and St Francis as well in South Africa, we went surfing every day before and after the rounds, it was a super exhausting week but it was so much fun. It was more like a holiday week with a little bit of golf in between! She's moved to Brittany and is near a perfect surf spot so she is surfing every day and I need to keep up with her and hope she's not getting too much better than I am!
His girlfriend Sanni Beucke is also a successful athlete, winning an Olympic silver medal in 49er FX sailing at the Tokyo 2020 Games
It's super nice that we're both doing sport and are super into our sport and love it. We are trying to get better all the time but it's pretty nice as well that we do completely different types of sport. We definitely understand the mindset and the mental aspects, taking breaks and being fresh again. It's quite nice when she comes back from the water and we talk more about the feelings and what we're thinking and we do that after a golf tournament. But we have no idea what's going on! She has no idea about golf, I have no idea about sailing and it's quite refreshing. But it definitely helps to talk about the feelings and emotions you have doing a competition and the important days.
His win is just his 12th start makes him the fastest German winner in DP World Tour history - beating Yannik Paul by 14 events
They told me all the crazy facts last night so maybe it's a bit cooler than I thought. It's a weird feeling knowing I got there before some great players. One and a half years ago I was still paying amateur events and maybe dreaming of getting to the Tour at some point. I always knew I could make it to the Tour, and I could win on the Tour, but you never know if it's going to happen. You see so many people who are great at the sport but never make it to the Tour or have a great career but never win. To do everything in one and a half years is pretty amazing and at the same time so much fun. If all this stuff is possible, what's coming in the future? I'm super excited about it to prove to myself that maybe I'm pretty good at golf.
He was dreaming of playing in the Ryder Cup at school
In Germany as kids we have books where you write in what your hobbies are, what music you like and all those things and what you want to do when you grow up. When I was six or seven I put in there that I wanted to play the Ryder Cup. It's going to be super hard but right now anything is possible. I'm just trying to play as well as possible and if I could win in Italy on that course, going back-to-back, maybe I could text Luke Donald and ask him!
He went 76-61 in the first two rounds of the Qualifying School last year before winning the sixth card to earn his place on Tour
I've never had a 15-shot difference between two rounds before! I'd missed out on my card at the Challenge Tour Grand Final by two shots and then to play four over par in my first round at the Q School I just thought, 'it's been a great first year as a professional. I was dreaming of making my card and now everything has slipped from my hands'. It was such a bad feeling but I thought I could complain as much as I wanted after I'd played my five more rounds and I wanted to go out and play as well as I could. I was going to go for every in and try to make every putt, normally when you try to play well you never play well. It felt like losing the whole season made me completely free and it was great golf but lucky at the same time - shooting ten under you have to be lucky. I thought 'what's going on here?' and I was super relaxed then, it was nice to find the reset button. I'd already lost it so I could just win and enjoy it. I couldn't sleep before the final round because I was so nervous, it was amazing.
His closest friends on Tour are Jeremy Freiburghaus, Marcel Siem and Freddy Schott
There are so many nice guys on the Tour, it's pretty cool. From amateur golf not knowing too many people I thought it might be kind of lonely but being out there and having so many great guys from Germany but also from so many different countries and from my career as an amateur and from Challenge Tour and from Q School, it's pretty nice to see most of them doing well and having a good time and playing well.
