David Horsey dug in when it mattered to secure the Made in Denmark title with a two-stroke victory that helped him surge up The Race to Dubai Rankings.
Horsey’s first win of the season, and the fourth European Tour title of his career, launched him up to 56th position in The Race to Dubai from 116th. The Englishman led from the opening round and battled hard to withstand a series of challenges, finishing 13 under par 271 to secure the €250,000 winner’s cheque which takes his Race to Dubai points total for the season to 402,838.
The win gives Horsey a great chance of making the field for the DP World Tour Championship, taking place at Jumeirah Golf Estates from Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 November, featuring the top 60 available players in the season-long rankings.
“It feels fantastic,” said Horsey. “It’s starting to sink in now. Coming down those last few holes I was very much in my own zone just trying to focus on myself. It probably helped that there weren’t many leaderboards out there. To get clapped in on all the greens like we did was amazing.”
Home favourite Søren Kjeldsen, winner of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in May, produced another strong performance at the Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort to finish tied second at 11 under par with Sweden’s Kristoffer Broberg and Australian duo Daniel Gaunt and Terry Pilkadaris.
The result bagged Kjeldsen €99,790 which puts him in a strong position in The Race to Dubai as he moves from 21st to 14th spot with 1,046,678 points for the season.
Kjeldsen, however, believes he failed to capitalise on his chance of triumph in Denmark: “I’ve got mixed feelings,” he said. I felt like I did all the hard work to get myself in position, but I slipped a bit at the end. It wasn’t easy at all. I’m pleased with how I played but I’m desperately unhappy about not finishing it off.”
Broberg maintained his consistent form of late in Denmark to rise into the crucial top 60 segment in The Race to Dubai rankings - he now sits 54th after being in 62nd place coming into the tournament. The highlight of Broberg’s weekend was a final round 62 and the Swede will be happy with his recent form after finishing in the top 20 in his last three tournaments.
The top 13 of the overall standings remains unaltered and Rory McIlroy still leads the way ahead of England’s Danny Willett in the quest to be crowned European Number One with 88 days remaining before the season-ending DP World Tour Championship gets underway on the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
General admission for the DP World Tour Championship is free of charge and can be obtained by registeringhere. Those who register will also be placed into a prize draw with the chance to win a VIP Hospitality package for the Championship Chalet.
