Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen admits he never thought he would be teeing it up at the Amgen Irish Open at the start of the season but he is eager to grasp his chance after securing promotion from the European Challenge Tour.
The Dane makes his debut as a full DP World Tour member at Royal County Down after claiming his third Challenge Tour win of the season at the weekend at the Big Green Egg German Challenge powered by VcG.
That achievement not only gets him a card for the rest of this season but also for 2025, with Aaron Rai - now a Rolex Series and PGA TOUR winner - the last player to achieve the feat in 2017.
It has been a whirlwind for Neergaard-Petersen, who went from Germany to Copenhagen for just 11 hours before setting off to Northern Ireland, only to find his clubs had not come with him.
But even that can not take the shine off for the 25-year-old, who is relishing the challenge of taking on one of the most revered courses on earth.
"I'm just going to really enjoy myself and obviously always it's like any other week," he said. "You go in and you hope to play good.
"But I'm really going to be enjoying myself and you know, if it doesn't go the way I want, those events, at least I've got everything shored up for next year.
"So I'm just really going to enjoy it and take it all in.
"I had a goal to win once and to get my card by the end of the year but as I said on Sunday, I couldn't have I imagined this going this way, winning three times in a span of four or five months. I'm just over the moon, really. I could never have imagined it has gone as well as it did."
Neergaard-Petersen may not be the only player to earn an instant promotion this season with the two men behind him on the Road to Mallorca - John Parry and Joakim Lagergren, plus Joel Moscatel - also on two wins.
And he would be delighted if they were to join him by making their return to the DP World Tour.
"Absolutely, that would be awesome," he said.
"I've been pushing hard and practising at home trying to make sure I can stay in that top spot. So getting it done last week was really the result of, I'd say, at least plenty of months of hard work."
