Tournament: Made in Denmark
Course: Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort
Location: Aalborg, Denmark
Purse: €1,500,000
Yardage: 7,033
Preview
The Tour's eagerly-anticipated return to Denmark begins in earnest this week, with the country's most successful golfer, Thomas Bjorn, headlining the field. A 15-time winner on the European Tour, Bjorn needs one more good result to book his third Ryder Cup appearance. Over 70,000 spectators are expected to be in attendance over the four days so the Danish fans will be hoping for a home winner. 17 Danes are in the field, with the only notable absentee being Soren Hansen, who is out with an injury. According to Lucas Bjerregaard, who is playing his first season on Tour and is a member at Himmerland, the winning score should be somewhere around eight or ten under par, depending on if the wind blows. The course recently underwent a renovation of all greens and bunkers, but it looks like it will provide a stern test.
The international challengers include Paul Lawrie, Nicolas Colsaerts, Marc Warren, Chris Wood, David Horsey, David Howell, Gregory Bourdy, Simon Dyson, Michael Hoey, and Peter Uihlein. Lawrie is dealing with a back injury and may not tee it up, but let's hope he does because he's been working hard on his game and I'm confident a very good result is in store very soon. Colsaerts, outside of a tied-second performance at the Maybank Malaysian Open in April, has had an abysmal season in both Europe and the United States; let's hope the month's break will see him play the golf we know he's capable of beginning this week. Warren finished tied-15th last week at the US PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club and sits 33rd in the Race to Dubai; I firmly expect the two-time Tour winner to bag a victory before the season ends. Wood also played at Valhalla last week and put in a respectable performance by finishing tied-47th; the tall Englishman has all the tools to be a top-50 player but needs to put four rounds together on a more consistent basis. Horsey won the M2M Russian Open three weeks ago in a playoff over Damien McGrane to complete a wire-to-wire victory and has to be one of the favorites in this week's event. Howell has shown signs of a return to form, most notably a tied-15th finish in the Open Championship and looks to improve on his 63rd ranking in the Race to Dubai. Bourdy has made 12/15 cuts this season with two top-10s, but he has way too much talent to be 68th in the Race to Dubai and 134th in the Official World Golf Rankings. Dyson has played so much golf this season, but has been surprisingly consistent in making 13 cuts out of 20 events and has already earned more euros than he did all of last season; like Warren, I'd be shocked if Dyson didn't win by the end of the season. Hoey has had his most consistent season on Tour, only missing five cuts in 21 events, but picked up an injury in the Open Championship so it's uncertain how he's going to perform this week. Uihlein has had a torrid time over the past five or six months, both through injury and poor play; since the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, the American has yet to make it to the weekend but hopefully this week is the beginning of a strong end to the season for him.
Notable groupings for the first two rounds (all times United States Eastern Time; first round/second round)
Morten Orum Madsen, Felipe Aguilar, and Paul Lawrie (2:00 a.m./7:00 a.m.)
Marc Warren, Thomas Bjorn, Nicolas Colsaerts (2:10 a.m./7:10 a.m.)
David Howell, Richie Ramsay, Anders Hansen (2:20 a.m./7:20 a.m.)
Raphael Jacquelin, Peter Uilein, Chris Wood (7:00 a.m./2:00 a.m.)
Thorbjorn Olesen, Kristoffer Broberg, Brett Rumford (7:10 a.m./2:10 a.m.)
Gregory Bourdy, Julien Quesne, Soren Kjeldsen (7:20 a.m./2:20 a.m.)
TV Coverage in the United States (Golf Channel)
Thursday and Friday (5:30-7:30 a.m. and 9:30-12:00 p.m.)
Saturday (7:00-11:00 a.m.)
Sunday (6:30-11:00 a.m.)
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