Thorbjorn

Olesen

The 32-year-old Dane is having a good rebound year, currently 19th in the DP World Tour Rankings. The key highlight was a win at the British Masters in May. “It gave me that confidence that I can win again. Over four years, you’re not quite sure if you’re going to do it again but I kept sticking with the process.” Olesen posted a T31 at last year’s edition of this event and will have his eyes on a higher prize this week, arriving with top 30s in three of his four lead-in starts.

The 32-year-old Dane, who claimed his sixth DP World Tour title and his first in nearly four years at The Belfry, had made the cut in the three events leading up to his victory with a best finish of T-12 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. He’s made six cuts in eight DP World Tour starts this season. This week marks Olesen’s fifth start in the Dutch Open, where he’s made just one cut, finishing T-50 in 2014. The 2022 event returns to Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands for the second straight year, but this year marks the first time that the Dutch Open is part of The Open Qualifying Series for 2022. The tournament will offer three places in The 150th Open at St. Andrews for the leading three players (not otherwise exempt) finishing in the top 10 and ties. The Dutch Open also is the third stop in the four-event European Qualifying Series, with players battling for 10 available spots for the U.S. Open.

The 32-year-old Olesen, who last won at the 2018 Italian Open, carded a 1-over 73 in the final round at The Belfry to finish at 10-under 278, one shot ahead of Sweden’s Sebastan Soderberg. “There are so many emotions, it’s been a long time since I won and I knew how hard it was going to be,” he said. “I was really struggling out there and just didn’t have it. Somehow just kept on fighting and scrambling some pars and saw I still had a chance there on 17. Yeah, if I could make birdie, birdie, I thought I could force a playoff, so that was my thinking.” The Dane started the final round with a three-shot lead, but he trailed by two with two holes to play before draining a 28-footer for eagle at the par-five 17th and a 36-footer for birdie at 18 to deny Soderberg, who was in the clubhouse at 9 under after a 68 on Sunday.

Acquitted from those charges caused by his actions from a transcontinental flight from Nashville, Tennessee to the United Kingdom, the 31-year-old said, “My actions resulted from taking powerful sleeping pills I had not taken before and my sole intent was to ensure I managed to sleep on a trans-Atlantic flight after an exhausting playing schedule.” Mixing alcohol with sleeping pills, the Dane had denied all charges against him. Olesen added, “I have learned from my mistake and will make sure I never put myself in a similar position again. I now want to focus on my golf, free from distractions, and to repay the trust of everyone who kept faith in me throughout this very difficult time.”

This week marks Olesen’s ninth start in the BMW International Open, an event where he’s enjoyed some consistent success: He’s made the cut in his last five starts and has finished in the top 10 in three of his last four appearances at the Germany event. He has two runner-up finishes (2016, 2018) and finished T-10 in 2019. Olesen’s scoring average of 69.11 this season has him ranked fourth on the European Tour. He’s also ranked 12th in GIR (70.76) and sixth in putts per GIR (1.71). The 31-year-old Dane is still awaiting trial on several charges, including sexual assault, stemming from a transcontinental flight from Nashville, Tenn., to London in July 2019. Olesen was suspended by the European Tour on Aug. 6, 2019, but the ban was lifted last July because of the “unprecedented delay in court proceedings.” His court date is set for Dec. 6 of this year. Olesen finished T-40 in his last start at the Porsche European Open earlier this month.

Two weeks ago at Meloneras Golf Course, the 31-year-old Dane fired a 9-under 61 in Round 2 to set a new course record and take a one-shot lead. He relinquished the advantage after an even-par 70 on Saturday but rebounded with a bogey-free 66 to finish T-5. The five-time European Tour winner followed that up with an opening-round 62 to take the lead at the Tenerife Open, but faded to T-12 after going 69-72-66. He’ll get another shot at Costa Adeje this week. Gran Canaria marked Olesen’s his first worldwide start since last December after battling a wrist injury and COVID-19, and he also is also awaiting trial on several charges, including sexual assault, stemming from a transcontinental flight from Nashville, Tenn., to London in July 2019. Olesen was originally scheduled to stand trial last May, but his court date was moved to Dec. 6 of this year due to the pandemic. Olesen was suspended by the European Tour on Aug. 6, 2019, but the ban was lifted last July because of the “unprecedented delay in court proceedings.” He returned to action last August and made eight cuts in 12 starts in 2020. His last win came at the 2018 Italian Open.

Olesen’s trial in Denmark was originally slated for May 11, but has now been pushed back to 2021 because of COVID-19 implications. As a result, the 30-year-old will be allowed to compete once the European Tour resumes play later this month. Olesen capped a career year in 2018 with an appearance at the Ryder Cup, but he faces three separate charges stemming from an airplane incident when he is alleged to have urinated in an aisle and assaulted a female passenger. Olesen got as high as 33rd in the world rankings, but he is currently ranked No. 162 and has not played since a T-27 finish at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational nearly a year ago.

The Dane made headlines in the wrong way last week during his plane ride home from the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. That were reports of harassment, sexual assault, and public urination during the flight. As reported by TV 2 SPORT, Olesen is due in court for this matter on August 21st. That is the day before the Scandanavian Invitation which he was scheduled to play in. Olesen is still listed in the field at press time but it’s unlikely that he remains committed. Of course, that may be a moot point anyway if the outcome of the trial leads to an extension of his current short-term suspension laid down by the European Tour.

This is the 29-year-old’s 16th WGC with four prior top 10s, including a best of T3 at last year’s Bridgestone. He arrived off a T57 at last week’s Open Championship (72-68-77-71). The Dane’s career best in 55 TOUR events is the aforementioned T3. On 10 (of 14) fairways and 15 greens in regulation, he gained 1.377 strokes off-the-tee and 0.821 on approach. The London resident squared a lone bogey-5 at hole 5, outpaced by six birdies at 2, 3, 6-8 and 17, five from between 11 and 29 feet. He recording 1.600 putts per GIR and 2.026 SG: Putting with 28 total putts.

The Dane was taking a flight home from Nashville to London when the incident occurred. The Sun reported on the matter and claimed that Olesen was abusing passengers and crew members and even urinated in the first-class aisle. His Ryder Cup teammate, Ian Poulter, was on the plane to calm him down but was asleep during most of the ruckus. This is incredibly immature behavior from the 29-year-old and there is no indication yet of whether there will be consequences handed down from the European Tour on this matter.