Player Blog: Lucas Bjerregaard 

In this week’s Player Blog presented by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Lucas Bjerregaard reflects on retaining his European Tour card, bouncing back from a very tough 2020 and beating Tiger Woods.

The last two years has been very tough for myself, my wife and our family. Missing cuts, living in hotels and not being able to fly home often has been hard. When I’m playing badly it doesn’t just affect me, but my whole family. I’ve had a pretty bad couple of years with some very dark times - it’s been an immensely stressful period. I’ve known what I had to do and just haven’t found the form I know I’m capable of. So, it was a massive relief to have a good finish to the season at the Portugal Masters.

I felt a few different emotions in Portugal on Sunday. I felt fine all week, very focused on the task at hand, and I knew exactly what needed to be done. I put myself in contention on Saturday, and I went out on Sunday trying to win. I thought about winning all day and gave it all my all. I’ve known for a while I needed to find my game, and time was running out.

When I finished on the 18th hole on Sunday, I looked round and saw my family out of the corner of my eye and my little girl ran straight over to me. I instantly broke down. It wasn’t until I was interviewed that what I had just achieved started to sink it. It’s been a very rough couple of years for me so last week was huge and was far more than just a good result. I had retained my card for next season and proved to myself that I can produce when I need to.

It was made possible because I had my family there by my side. My two small kids kept me busy and on my toes all week. Without them I’d have thought a lot more about what was in front of me and possibly wouldn’t have come away with the same outcome. They distracted me. On Sunday I played for them. I didn’t want to be coming back to our room without the result we all wanted. So, they were at the forefront of my mind all weekend, especially on Sunday. They had a huge impact on my performance.

I didn’t care if I hit a bad shot. I didn’t care if it looked bad on TV. I didn’t care what anyone thought or said about it. I didn’t care what the stats showed. I just wanted to get the ball as close to the hole and move on the next shot. I didn’t play amazing, I’ve not been in contention for quite a while, so I haven’t got that confidence to lean on. In the end I’m really proud to have fought hard for the result and earned my card.

My coach asked me what happened, what changed because I shot 17 under and haven’t got anywhere close to that for almost the whole year. Funnily enough I couldn’t tell him that I had played any better than the past couple of months. It wasn’t anywhere near my best, but I had a different attitude and mentality. I have to thank my caddie as he really helped me with that. From the moment we arrived in Portugal on Tuesday, we didn’t speak about keeping our card, we didn’t speak about what ifs and what could be. It was business time. We both knew what we needed to do. I could sense we were on the same wavelength.

In 2020 I started playing on the PGA Tour. It was a hard period. I have no regrets, but if I had the chance to do it again, I’d do things slightly differently. COVID arrived just as my season over there was getting started so that was a major disruption, as it was for everybody, but I then went back over when things opened back up. I had an 11 week stretch. I couldn’t bring my family unfortunately, due to COVID. So, I traveled over alone, and started off playing poorly, missing several cuts in a row. I was due to have a full week off but I couldn’t bear staying in a hotel for yet another week by myself, only going out to train alone. I felt very lonely, and I think that’s where a lot of my problems that I suffer from to this day come from. I had some very dark moments there, a lot of time on my own with my own thoughts. That didn’t help me at all. So, I came back after just five or six weeks and couldn’t do it anymore. I missed my family.

I read an article last week about me retaining my card and saw I’ll be going into my ninth season, and I thought that’s not true. It can’t be true - I’ve only been out year for about seven seasons. But I was wrong, very wrong! Those 200 events have flown by and I’ve shared some amazing memories with some fellow pros, especially fellow Danes, and played some amazing events.

It’s hard to think of one favourite highlight. I’ll never forget my first Masters, and of course my two Tour wins. Both wins were special for completely different reasons. Wining in Portugal was special as my wife was heavily pregnant, and then winning the Dunhill Links was massive as it was at St Andrews. I have some amazing memories at home in Denmark at Himmerland, the support we get is amazing. I know I didn’t win in Portugal this time round, but it’s right up there as one of my favourite moments. It’s amazing to see how much people care and show support for you. The last week has been amazing, full of incredible memories I’ll always remember.

Growing up the first tournament I ever watched was when Thomas Bjørn beat Tiger Woods in Dubai, and both were players I looked up to. Thomas because he’s Danish, and he has shown us young Danes what’s possible and has been a massive help to me over the years. As has Søren Kjeldsen, I’ve had a lot of respect for how hard he’s worked over his career.

But Tiger was my idol, and he is the reason I got into golf. I will never forget introducing myself before we played the quarter final at the Match Play back in 2019. I was walking past the range to get to the first tee and thought I better say hi, and I’ll never forget the look and firm handshake he gave me. It was intimidating to say the least. Funnily enough I was more nervous playing Henrik Stenson that morning, and I didn’t know why. I think it was the magnitude of it all and the amount of people following us. It was so much to take in and I don’t think I even expected to have a chance to beat him. I’ve never played in front of so many people. Everyone screaming Tiger’s name. It was surreal.

Tiger had a short putt on 18 to extend our match, and I was halfway towards the next hole ready for the play off. It’s Tiger. He doesn’t miss putts like that. But he missed, and the match was over. It was a very strange feeling. It took a while to sink in, but once it did, it was an amazing feeling. One I won’t forget. I’ve seen him a few times since at Augusta and the PGA Championship and we’ve shared a few chats. He’s a great professional. But that was another moment I’ll always remember.