Kristoffer Reitan was taking inspiration from being part of a Ryder Cup scouting trip on the eve of the BMW PGA Championship as a back-nine birdie blitz left him hailing one of his career-best rounds on day three at Wentworth Club.
The Norwegian was one of four would-be Team Europe rookies who attended a visit to Adare Manor on Monday after a memorable campaign that has seen him add PGA Tour success to his two DP World Tour titles at the Soudal Open and Nedbank Golf Challenge from 2025.
This week sees Reitan return to the DP World Tour for the first time outside of the Major Championships and co-sanctioned events, having reached the climax of the FedExCup Playoffs in his debut season stateside.
And he underlined his progression on golf's biggest stages with a third-round 64 that featured seven birdies on his way home over the West Course to vault to 11 under, one shot adrift of halfway leader Ryan Gerard at the Rolex Series event.
Thursday's opening round marked one year to go until next year's Ryder Cup and Reitan admits the experience of lining up alongside some stalwarts of European golf in Ireland was "huge" for fuelling the desire to sustain his upward career trajectory, having earned promotion to the DP World Tour from the HotelPlanner Tour at the end of 2024.
"It was cool," he said. "It was a very, very good experience for me. It's just a little bit of a tease, you know, and it's meant to inspire you and I'm trying to let it inspire me.
"I know that I'm not certain of a place on that team. I have to work really, really hard on the quality in every single piece of my game. But being there was huge."
After rounds of 71 and 70 over the opening two days at Wentworth, Reitan played his front nine in level par on Saturday as he mixed three birdies with three bogeys.
Despite not feeling fully at ease off the tee, he credited his work on the greens as birdies at the tenth and 11th were followed by a string of five gains in a row to close out his day.
"It's hard. Putting was insane today," he said after holing over 165 feet of putts. "It was at least the last maybe 12 or so holes, and that helps a lot.
"Off the tee, I've been struggling. for the last few months and that's been very, very difficult to manage today as well.
"I didn't feel like I did a good job off the tee, but took incredibly good care of the score and rolled in some really, really nice putts. So it was a lot of fun."
While it was still some way short of his career-best 60 on the DP World Tour, Reitan was in no doubt it was among his best performances on Tour.
"It's up there, for sure," he said. "Maybe that nine-under [to win] at the Soudal Open [is better], but cool to do it on a Saturday, and on an historic venue like this."
Exempt on the PGA Tour through to the end of the 2028 season following his victory in the Truist Championship - a Signature Event - at Quail Hollow in May, Reitan is set to play largely on the DP World Tour as he bids to qualify for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
With starts at the FedEx Open de France and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to come over the next two weeks, the 28-year-old, who became the second Norwegian winner stateside after Viktor Hovland, is happy to be back in familiar surroundings.
"America is great," he said of his reflections on his rookie PGA Tour season. "I miss the DP World Tour though a lot. I missed you and I miss all the guys.
"It's great to be back. This is my home tour, and it's nice to come back; and also play well enough on the PGA Tour that I can actually afford to come back here and finish off the season where you want to finish it off, you know.
"That's a privilege that I look forward to taking advantage of.
"[It's been] a little bit different because I know so many guys out here, and in America, at that point [of his win], at least, I didn't really know that many.
"So it's definitely different but playing that well on a course like that over there was just amazing. So it's been a successful year no matter what.
"But I want to keep nudging my game if the right direction. That's where I'm at."
