Niklas Nørgaard was keeping his cool as he goes in search of a first DP World Tour win at the European Open.
The Dane arrived at Green Eagle Golf Courses off the back of a tie for second at the Soudal Open, where he missed a 12-foot putt on the last that would have sent him into a play-off with Nacho Elvira.
That was the best result of his DP World Tour career to date since graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 2021.
He now enters the weekend in Hamburg at nine under after following a 69 with a 68 and while he is a two-time winner on the Nordic Golf League, he was delighted to show he can compete at the top on golf's global tour.
"I feel in complete control of my game," he said. "I haven’t been in this position many times in my career on the DP World Tour so I am a little bit surprised at how calm I feel out there.
"My game feels good and when I’ve put myself in trouble I have managed to make some good saves.
"Last week gave me a lot of confidence and proved to myself that I am able to hit good shots in that environment at the top of the leaderboard.
"I’m going to try and do exactly the same over the weekend and hopefully it puts me in a good position."
Nørgaard sits fifth in driving distance on the DP World Tour this season, averaging 326.99 yards off the tee, an asset when playing this week's 7,458-yard par-73 Porsche Nord Course in wet conditions.
But he also birdied the par-three 14th on Friday and holed out from the sand on the 18th to show all aspects of his game are in good touch.
"On paper this course is a very good fit for my game, however last week was more of a positional course in Soudal and I played very well," he said.
"Sometimes it is just about managing expectations and I took that mindset heading into this week and so far it has gone very well."
