Wil

Besseling

The 36-year-old Besseling carded a 1-under 71 in the final round at Green Eagle Golf Courses in Hamburg, Germany, to finish at 4-under 284, two strokes behind first-time DP World Tour winner Kalle Samooja. It marked his second top 10 of the season after finishing T-9 at the Catalunya Championship in April. Besseling finished seventh among the top 10 aggregate points earners, not otherwise exempt, at the conclusion of the qualifying series, which also included the Betfred British Masters, Soudal Open and Dutch Open. Joining the Dutchman in the field at TCC will be Samooja, Thorbjorn Olesen, Sam Horsfield and Victor Perez, all of whom won titles at the qualifying events, as well as Ryan Fox, Sebastian Soderberg, Yannik Paul, Richard Mansell and Marcel Schneider, who advanced via series’ points. On the season, Besseling has made eight cuts in 13 DPWT starts.

The Dutchman had a career revival in 2020 when he played his first full season on the DP World Tour since 2009. Besseling posted a 16-for-21 record in 2020 and followed it up with 17 cuts made in 22 events played last season. He’s been top 25 in strokes gained driving in each of those two seasons while also hovering inside of the top 60 in approach. His weakness is still the short game, around-the-green play in particular. There is lots of room for improvement if he can tidy up in that area, otherwise, he will remain a steady ball-striking that is often viable in weekly fantasy golf formats. Besseling currently ranks 281st in the OWGR.

The 35-year-old has now made 78 starts on the European Tour, 21 of them coming this season. OF the four career podium finishes, three came this season, easily the best of his career. Back in June he penned this on the European Tour’s website, “I’m probably in the best shape mentally, physically, golfing wise that I’ve ever been in. I’ve really enjoyed the last month and I’m really looking forward to the coming season. I’ve tried not to change the way I look at things and feel about things, and it really helped me to maintain that positive vibe while doing the simulator and being at home.” What’s most impressive is the way he accomplished his big finishes. It wasn’t smoke and mirrors with a few lucky short-game performances. Besseling ranked 2nd on tour in strokes gained off-the-tee this season and was also 57th in strokes gained approach. Gamers were probably treading lightly when the results started to pile up this season but they should invest with confidence in 2021 until he shows any sign of decline in the ball-striking department.

The Dutchman began the day in second and three shots adrift of the leader and his playing partner Pablo Larrazabal. But the Spaniard endured pain and swing problems on the front nine and collapsed horribly. Besseling suddenly found himself thrust into the lead and for the most part he coped well with it, but others began to nip at his heels and Larrazabal recovered to win. In the heat of an unusual battle Besseling wilted a little to tie Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace two shots back of the winning total. His front nine was a carbon copy of R3: six pars with a birdie-bogey-bogey run from the sixth. He made shots at the 11th and 15th, but dropped them at the 14th and 18th, the latter when chasing the win. He equals his career best but he previous effort was in a Challenge Tour co-sanctioned event so this is his best in effect.

For long stretches of the day it appeared that the Dutchman would drift out of the reckoning, but he remained resolute. He parred his first five holes before making a birdie at the sixth and then stumbled with back-to-back bogeys at the seventh and eighth. There was no wilting however. He ticked three holes in four at the 11th, 13th and 14th. And if he failed to make headway at either of the par-5 15th or 18th, he did avoid the errors that others made. He will spend Sunday at Leopard Creek CC chasing a highly unlikely win or just bettering his European Tour career best of T3 in the 2009 Madeira Islands Open. Second at 54 holes is already a European Tour best of his. He’s only three times been in the top ten at this stage and every time he hung around for a top seven.

The 33-year-old Dutchman is enjoying a very different experience at Leopard Creek CC compared to his debut, and only previous start, 11 years ago. That year his 1-under 143 saw him miss the cut, but in grinding out a score just five swings better he finds himself in a vaulted position. He started his Friday circuit on the back nine and for a second day running made a bogey-4 at the 12th, but he atoned before the turn with another second-of-the-week – a birdie-4 at the 18th. The front nine was a disappointment with dropped shots at the second and ninth against a birdie at the eighth. His weekend will be exciting but stressful because he has made just three career ET top tens, although the most recent was last season in the KLM Open.

The Dutchman’s closing par breaker nudged him ahead of Garrick Porteous and Pablo Larrazabal but we’ll have to see if the afternoon wave can reel him in or whether his 65 will secure a first 18-hole lead at this level. Besseling looked unlikely to hit top spot when following birdies at 7, 9 and 11 with a dropped shot at 12 to sit at 2-under with six to play. But he went birdie-birdie-eagle from Nos. 13-15 and then ticked the par-5 closer. Besseling has limited status but he showed some strong form at the end of the Challenge Tour season, finishing third in October’s Hainan Open in China and T11 at the Grand Final in Spain. He’s played this event just once previously and missed the cut (71-72) but that was way back in 2008.

That’s four swings behind R1 leader Matt Wallace of England. Keen to get going after sitting Thursday out, Besseling opened with a birdie-4 at 10 and added two more circles on his opening nine with gains at 14 and 17. The Dutchman ticked 1 and 2 and scribbled in a final red number of the morning with a birdie at 6. It was pars the rest of the way. That’s a fine start although he’ll feel he left shots out there after only making birdie at one of Morgado G&CC’s five par 5s. The 31-year-old plies his trade on the Challenge Tour and has a best this season of T7 at March’s Kenya Open.