The Made in Denmark Challenge is the last piece of a golfing triangle that allows Denmark to fully implement the European blueprint for golfing success.
With a brilliantly run national Tour – the ECCO Tour, which forms part of the Nordic League – and a sensational European Tour debut at last year’s Made in Denmark tournament, the only thing missing from Denmark’s golfing portfolio was a strong Challenge Tour event to bridge the gap between the Third Level Nordic League and The European Tour.
The successful introduction of Made in Denmark Challenge ensures the professional game in Denmark is now represented at every level, with the ECCO Tour and Nordic League feeding the Challenge Tour which, in turn, feeds The European Tour.
Flemming Astrup is central to Denmark’s golfing success story. Not only does he run the ECCO Tour, but he is employed by the Trust of Made in Denmark to promote both of their tournaments on the Challenge and European Tours.
On a trip to Dubai at the start of this year, Astrup sat down with his long-term friend Thomas Bjørn and Challenge Tour Director Alain de Soultrait, and conversation soon turned to the Challenge Tour’s desire to return to Denmark.
“I had a chat with Alain and Thomas in Dubai this year and Thomas was very keen to get the Challenge Tour back to Denmark because it means a lot to him and meant a lot to his career and he is very passionate about the Challenge Tour,” said Astrup.
“He was a little disappointed that the third level tours were developing in Denmark but the Challenge Tour wasn’t a part of that, so we talked about it and came up with the idea of making this tournament a small version of our Made in Denmark tournament on the European Tour.
“From having that chat with Alain and Thomas it only took eight or nine days for us to sign the contract and as soon as we did that we decided to go all in and use the team from the ECCO Tour and the Made in Denmark tournament to make this event as good as possible
“You can see from looking around the amount of effort that has gone into this event, with a great tented village and signage all over the course – we are trying to make it as big a tournament as possible and I don’t think you see to many events like this one on the Challenge Tour. We are trying to make it feel and look like a main Tour event and also bring a lot of spectators and some fun to the event.”
Astrup’s description of the Made in Denmark Challenge is spot-on. You could be forgiven for thinking you had walked into a European Tour event at Royal Copenahgen Golf this week, with a testing championship golf course, great practice facilities, an impressive tented village, on course signage and great crowds, with over 1000 people flocking to the golf course every day.
“It’s great to have this event. If I look at it from my ECCO Tour point of view, then it is very positive to have the link between the ECCO Tour and the Challenge Tour because it helps our best young Danish players develop at a better level. Then, if I put my Made in Denmark hat on, it’s great for the main tour event to have a little brother on the Challenge Tour. That gives us an opportunity to put on an event in Copenhagen, which is great for our sponsors in and around the capital city. But the concept was to have a ‘Made in Denmark light’ if you want to describe it that way and it is working well for us.
Astrup may be in charge of only a small team of people from the ECCO Tour and Made in Denmark behind the scenes, but driven by a shared passion, the results they achieve are bigger than anyone could expect. Be it sponsorship, marketing, staging or media, Astrup’s team have every part of the event business covered. And, perhaps most importantly, they enjoy what they do as a team which enables them to consistently overachieve.
“It’s important that you care a lot about your events. The team we have working on these events are all hard-working and passionate about our business and that makes a difference,” said Astrup. “We try to do things in very fine detail, and if just a few spectators or players feel that little bit extra effort then it’s worth it.”
