If at first you don’t succeed then try, try again. This well-known proverb is a fitting one for Bernd Ritthammer, who has discovered his finest form exactly ten years after joining the paid ranks, with three victories this season.
While Road to Oman champion Jordan Smith has taken many of the plaudits after his remarkable breakthrough year, Ritthammer ending his wait for European Challenge Tour silverware with a hat-trick of wins is equally impressive – and will give the German a higher category on the European Tour next season.
With six seasons under his belt before his maiden Challenge Tour triumph, it has been a long road to success for the 29 year old, who has been swinging a golf club since he was a toddler.
“I picked up a club for the first time when I was three years old – so I started quite early,” he said.
“My parents started playing on holiday then they became members at our local golf club and they took me with them. After that I started getting into kids’ programmes, and although I can’t remember it all, I can just recall myself enjoying it and deciding to stick with it.
“When I was around 14 or 15 I decided that I wanted to become a professional. Before then I was competitive but I just viewed it as a fun game which I played when I wanted to. From the age of 16 when I started playing well at national level I thought ‘I want to give this a go’.”
While his contemporaries visited college campuses and discussed the merits of myriad American cities, Ritthammer remained solely focused on his dream – to play professional golf.
“After I finished school I turned professional right away at 19,” he said. “I had the chance to go to study in America, but I decided not to. I was never one of those guys who desperately wanted to do it, and I thought if I want to play as a professional I need to start as soon as I can.
“It is different playing as a pro on your own, doing all your travelling on your own, and I thought that it is so different to playing at college in the States when you are part of a team and everything is pretty much done for you – there are set practice times, a team coach and a fitness coach and all your bookings for travelling are done for you.
“It is nothing like what we are faced with on tour, so I thought that if I wanted to do this I want to start as quick as possible to gain experience.”
It has been a steady rise to the summit of professional golf for the man from Munich, who spent three years on the satellite Pro Golf Tour before joining the Challenge Tour in 2010.
After coming through six gruelling rounds at Qualifying School in 2011, Ritthammer earned the chance to fulfil a life-long ambition to play on the European Tour the fufollowing year.
Following a disappointing rookie season, the German returned to Europe’s top developmental tour – where he would remain up until 2016.
The most successful campaign of his career to date began this summer with victory in Denmark, then again in Ireland, before he held off a late challenge from Jens Dantorp to triumph at the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in Oman.
After a remarkable eight months in which Ritthammer became only the tenth player in history to win three times in a Challenge Tour season – joining the likes of Brooks Koepka and Kristoffer Broberg – what has been behind the German’s meteoric rise?
“It is hard to say what has clicked,” he said. “The first win really helped, but for a year now I have been working with a new mental coach which has made a huge difference.
“I felt as though over the last couple of years I came up short a few times as I wasn’t tough enough, so having some more mental training has really helped me.
“I have also been working with a new fitness coach and I feel that every aspect of my game is getting a little bit better each year. This year proved to be the one where I am ready to make the next step, and I am so happy that I did it.”
