Mads Søgaard is hoping that a return to home soil at this week’s Made in Denmark Challenge – Presented by Ejner Hessel will kick-start his season after injury struggles curtailed the rapid progress he made in his rookie European Challenge Tour season in 2015.
The 23 year old was one of the breakthrough stars of the last Challenge Tour campaign, agonisingly missing out on a maiden victory at the lucrative Kazakhstan Open and also narrowly missing out on graduation to the European Tour.
He also had time to make an impression on the top tier of European golf when the former Duke University student, who set that college’s record for number of tournament victories in a season with five, finished in a share of sixth at the Made in Denmark on the Race to Dubai schedule.
But his meteoric rise was dealt a significant blow when a shoulder injury emerged at the tail end of the season and was exacerbated somewhat by his burning desire to progress to the highest echelons.
“It’s been a tough start to the year,” he said. “I’ve been injured with my shoulder since Oman last year. I sat out for six months, and started practising again around the time the Challenge Tour started again in Kenya. My first event was in Egypt.
“I didn’t practise that much going into the season so I have felt like I’ve been on the back foot a little bit but I’m going to try and work at it, put in some hours. I’m still looking after my shoulder though so it’s slow progress.
“It was very disappointing last year but at the same time I was playing through my injury and it was worse than I thought it was. I remember playing in Ireland, China and Oman and I felt like my game was in pretty good shape, I felt like I really wanted to do well but my shoulder kept getting worse.
“Every time I started my swing I was thinking, ‘this is going to hurt’. You’re not going to give it your best swing when you know it’s going to hurt so it was very frustrating and I just missed out on the top 15.
“I’m hoping now with the calendar picking up that I can pick up my game and last week was really encouraging. I have a few bad holes but other than that I feel like I’m on the right track, so hopefully this week I can build on that to get a good home result.”
Søgaard lives just over an hour away from the Aalborg Golf Club venue this week and put on a strong performance in this tournament last year, only falling out of contention in the final round, so he is relishing a return to his homeland.
“I was in contention after three rounds last year but then I struggled on the last day with the wind in Copenhagen,” he said. “The weekend was very tough but it was a very good event.
“It’s a new course this year and not too far away from where I live so obviously that will be nice to have a home event. For my early tee time I will have a hotel room but I will try and stay at home.
“I’m looking forward to that. It’s not often you get to play a tournament where you sleep in your own bed so it will be really nice.”
Søgaard will be joined in the field by 12 other Danes, including three-time Challenge Tour winner Andreas Hartø – whose first victory came on home soil in 2010.
Swede Marcus Kinhult, meanwhile, will make his Challenge Tour debut having earned a European Tour card via Qualifying School last November.
Alexander Knappe of Germany,Englishman Jordan L Smith and Scot Duncan Stewart, all winners already this season on Europe’s top developmental tour, are also in the field as is three-time European Tour winner Johan Edfors.
