Former Dutch, Swiss and Spanish Amateur champion, he graduated from the Challenge Tour in 1999, thanks largely to victory in the Tusker Kenya Open in 1999.

He earned his card at the Qualifying School in 1997 but lost it at the end of the 1998 season, despite having sold shares in himself to a group of businessmen in order to support his endeavours on The European Tour. However, the shareholders’ faith in him was handsomely repaid at the end of the 2004 season, when he bought them out at a profit of 85 per cent per share.

Sparked joyous scenes in his native Netherlands when, in October 2003, he became the first home player to win the Dutch Open since Joop Rühl in 1947 in Eindhoven, the town in which Lafeber was born. Played the next seven seasons on The European Tour, but has bounced between Challenge Tour and European Tour in recent years.