Nick Bachem may have played the Porsche Nord Course at Green Eagles Golf Courses more than any other layout so far in his short DP World Tour career but he will still be happy to break par this week at the Porsche European Open.
The home favourite made his debut at this event in 2021 and teed it up again 12 months later, with his lowest round being a 73 on Friday last season.
But he returns to Hamburg in 2023 as a DP World Tour winner, having lifted the trophy at the Jonsson Workwear Open, and is looking forward to trying to tame the now par-73 'Green Monster' again.
"I feel very good," he said. "It’s always a very nice week here. I’ve played two times before, my first and second events on Tour ever, so it’s always special to come here.
"It’s an awesome place, it’s always a good test. The course is probably one of the hardest we play all year. It’s always nice to come here and have the nice challenge ahead, seeing a lot of faces that you know. It’s very nice, I’m very happy to be here and can’t wait to start the week.
"It’s pretty hard to compete on the course. It’s nice and a great test. I like playing on a course where you have to grind it out, try to play level par and that is a good round. When you break par on this course, it feels like a very nice day.
"Every part of the game needs to be on point, you need good tee shots, good irons into the greens and the putter needs to be working. Every part is going to be tested, which is awesome."
Bachem's victory in South Africa means there are four current DP World Tour champions in this week's field, with Maximilian Kieffer, Yannik Paul and Marcel Siem all also winning in the last 12 months.
His rise has been meteoric and, after claiming three wins as an amateur on the Pro Golf Tour, he narrowly missed out on a card via the European Challenge Tour in his rookie season before coming through the Qualifying School, but has wasted no time acclimatising at the top level.
"Last time I was here, I didn’t do any interviews so it’s definitely changed a little bit in a positive way," he said. "It’s very nice to be here again.
"It would be amazing (to win). Winning back home with friends and family around would be amazing.
"A lot of people are expected to come out this week. The last two years it has been a really fun event. Standing on 18 with the nice area between 18 and the first and making the winning putt would be amazing. Especially in Hamburg, it would be such a nice place to win.
"In general it’s nice, you think about going into the German events now and having a couple of German winners on Tour. It’s nice to feel like there could be a good chance that we have a German winner in one of the German events.
"It would be awesome to win in Germany, it would be the coolest thing to do, winning in front of the home crowd and in front of your friends.
"Golf is a lot about feeling comfortable and feeling good and being happy. It’s super easy when you’re back home, have friends, family ,everybody around. You know the language, the food, you’re used to the grass, the course, everything. It makes it easy to feel comfortable. You can drive here by car, throw everything in the car, it’s nice."
