The opening round of the NEXT Golf Tour Powered by Trackman featured a trio of Swedes atop the leaderboard. During Round 2, international bragging rights shifted across the border to Denmark, as compatriots Christian Jacobsen and Oliver Suhr both shot 8-under-par 64 to lead the field at Medinah.
Jacobsen’s back-nine 32 gave him the tiebreaker and the $30,000 winner’s check. Suhr earned $15,930 as the runner-up.
"Maybe I will buy my girlfriend a bigger present than she was supposed to get!” Jacobsen said. “Otherwise, I will spend the majority of the winnings on my next season on the Nordic League. It is expensive to travel and play all those tournaments while fighting for a Challenge Tour card."
The second installment of the seven-event NEXT Golf Tour concluded at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 17. A field of 818 players competed in Trackman simulators worldwide for a total purse of $818,000, including $30,000 allocated to in-round side games and prizes for the top submissions on Instagram.
"The waiting time from when I finished my round until the tournament finished is awful!” Jacobsen said. “There is nothing you can do after you have finished your round. You just gotta wait and hope that no one can beat your score."
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Watch shot-by-shot replays of every player’s Round 2 performance on the live leaderboard: https://www.nextgolftour.com/tournament/next-golf-tour-round-2-medinah/leaderboard
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Mike Toorop of the Netherlands and Adam Blommé of Sweden tied for third at -7 and earned $10,806 each.
Twelve players tied for fifth at -6 and earned $2,767 each. The group included a pair of Finns who held the early lead, Kim Koivu and S1R4 winner Nikke Tyry, and a pair of amateurs, Colton Kalkanis of Canada and Andrea Birolini of Italy. Kalkanis and Birolini were limited to $1,000 in winnings due to their amateur status.
Another 12-player group finished at -5 (T–17, $454 each), followed by an 18-player logjam at -4 (T–29, $339 each).
Notable players at -3 (T–47, $300) included Sami Välimäki of Finland, who earned his second career win on the DP World Tour in November at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, and Leslie Cloots of Belgium, the top female finisher in the field. Men and women compete straight-up from different tee boxes on the NEXT Golf Tour.
After the round, the NEXT Golf Tour announced new tournament settings and rules would be introduced prior to Round 3 to ensure more consistent tracking data across various simulator setups.
Round 3 of the NEXT Golf Tour Season 2 opened on Jan. 5 at the Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course in Trackman simulators worldwide, and wraps up on Sunday, Jan. 14. This is the first “elevated” event of the season, featuring the largest NEXT purse yet: $226,100. The Round 3 champion will take home $50,000 — believed to be the largest prize ever awarded to the winner of a professional indoor golf tournament.
Round 3 also represents the NEXT Golf Tour’s shift from automatic to manual putting, meaning players are required to putt when on the green and outside the gimme circle (2.4 m/8 ft). All NEXT Golf Tour rounds will feature manual putting from now on.
SIDE GAMES WINNERS
Each round of the NEXT Golf Tour includes “side games,” which offer another level of competition — and another earning opportunity. Here are the top performers from Round 2:
Closest-to-the-Pin (Aggregate): Andreas Halvorsen, Norway (31’ 10”) — $4,000
Longest Drive (Men): Tyden Wilson, USA (361.8 yards) — $2,500
Longest Drive (Women): Patricia Isabel Schmidt, Germany (290.3 yards) — $2,500
Birdie Streak: Tatu Pajula, Finland (6) — $1,500
Most Greens in Regulation: (tie) Kim Koivu, Finland and Zach Ion, Australia (17) — $1,250 each
The full Round 2 results — including all side games winners, individual payouts and updated Order of Merit rankings — can be found at NEXTGolfTour.com. Follow the action all season long on Instagram and Facebook: @NEXTGolfTour and #NEXTGolfTour. Tune in to the NEXT Golf Show on YouTube on Tuesdays after each round, or follow on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
