In this week’s Player Blog presented by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Joachim B. Hansen reflects on two victories in 12 months, celebrating with family, and why patience has been key to his success.
It’s really nice to be here in Dubai at the DP World Tour Championship this week, because I didn’t expect to play in this event this season. I knew I needed to win the last tournament to get in here, so it was a satisfying feeling to do that, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Last week’s win meant a lot to me for a lot of reasons, and getting into this week is just part of that. When I arrived in Dubai I knew I’d secured my card for next season but didn’t expect to play this week, so my family and I rented an Airbnb and spent a bit of time as tourists at the Jumeirah Beach Residence and then we went to see the Eye of Dubai too. I just had a great week enjoying Dubai with my family here, and I was quite relaxed.
To have them by my side when I won was a dream come true. I was a little jealous when I watched Jeff Winther win with his family watching a few weeks ago, because when I won last year at the Joburg Open it was just me and my caddie. And that win was still incredibly special because it was my first one, and I was able to go up to the iPad and see them and speak to them after. But it’s not quite the same – and even though that was very emotional because I knew all my family, team and sponsors and everyone watched it happen, to actually have them here made it feel like a bigger and more important win than my first one.
Celebrating with them was part of that. The last year and a half was really tough at times without them, and it got a bit much being in hotels and not really being allowed to leave week in and week out. Since the rules were relaxed a bit for us about staying where we want, eating out and having family and coaches come out, it’s made a big difference. After this win all the team had a great dinner on Sunday night, and on Monday we moved to the Atlantis and stayed all day there at the waterpark, so we had a great relaxing day with the kids and everything. It was perfect.
A big positive I also took from that week was how I played from Thursday to Saturday. When we got there on Thursday I had a really good start, and then Saturday was the best I’ve ever played tee to green. Unfortunately I didn’t putt that great, but because my driving and approach was so good it gave me a lot of small chances for birdie.
I think it came down to a lot of stuff that my coach and I are working on. We’ve been together since 2017 – and he was also my coach for five years in the junior national side – and he’s just been really good at helping me focus on trying to hit the shots I want to hit rather than focusing on how the swing looks. We’ve been practicing a lot to get the swing moving in the right direction, and just knowing where the clubface is to be able to work the ball from right to left, left to right, and making sure I’ve got all the skills to hit all the shots I need. And it was just a day where that all came together.
Sunday I didn’t play as well, and to finish with a win was such a relief because I was struggling on the 18th hole. Tim Barter said afterwards I looked calm, but I wasn’t on the inside. I turned to my caddie Adam and I just said I’m struggling, I’m thinking too much about already winning it, celebrating and all of that and I knew it was way too early to do that. I told him what I was thinking and he really just helped me try to get my thoughts away from that, and really brought me back to being in the moment, taking one shot at a time.
That idea of trying to stay in the moment is something I work hard on. From what I know is that feeling is very normal on 18, and it happens to everyone, but you I also know you have to find a balance between accepting that’s how you’re feeling and trying to stay in your process.
That’s what I’ve worked really hard to do, to stay in the process of what I’m doing. Week to week I’m not setting goals as much as I’m trying to figure out what that process is because I know if I do that the results will come.
It comes down to patience, and I really think that has been the key to the change in my career over the last 12 months. Really just believing in what I do and believing that what I work on is good enough has been important. My coach has really tried to get that into my mind because sometimes I want my swing to be like this tomorrow, but I know now it takes a long time to get it there. So while my patience isn’t always there when I practice, it is better because he’s been trying to get it into my head that doing these things and trying to get one per cent better every day is what I should do, and the results will come.
I can see that improvement in my stats. When I look at my stats from this season to last season, my stats were actually better this season even before last week’s tournament so I know my game has evolved compared to the last few years. And the results weren’t there before, but that I think that added patience is a big key to why I’ve made it won twice over the last year.
Winning in Dubai and being part of a successful year for Danish golf is special to me too. This year has been incredible with so many wins out here, wins on the Challenge Tour and so many amateur achievements as well. It’s brilliant to be a part of that, and it feels like the future is very bright future for Danish golf. Hopefully, we are doing our part to inspire the next generation of amateurs in Denmark to want to come out here.
