Nicolai Hojgaard hasn’t changed his tune towards his Ryder Cup teammates who have left for LIV Golf since Europe’s victory over the USA in Rome.
The young Dane made his Ryder Cup debut playing with Jon Rahm in the Friday foursomes back in September when they halved with Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka. Three months later, Rahm moved to LIV Golf and his fellow Team Europe talisman Tyrrell Hatton joined him.
After the Masters last week, Hatton admitted to being nervous when sending a pre-tournament message to the Team Europe group chat after joining the Saudi-backed league and leaving the PGA Tour, but his worries were put to rest by warm responses
Hojgaard, who was one of four captain’s picks made by Luke Donald at the biennial dust-up with the USA in Italy, has no ill feelings towards the pair who now play for Legion XIII GC and described the amiable atmosphere among the 12 men who brought the Ryder Cup back to the continent at Marco Simone.
“I don’t hold anything against him (Hatton),” Hojgaard said when asked by NCG at the Corales Puntacana Championship. “I spent some time with Jon (Rahm) last week, that was pretty cool, I haven’t seen him for a while.
“And to learn from him around a place he’s won (the Masters) and they say a specialist is very useful for me. I could feel it going into the week and going into the back nine, obviously I had some very useful information from playing with Jon.
“We still have a group chat and it’s a good vibe and there’s joking around a little bit, but nothing’s changed certainly not from my side.”
It is unclear if Hojgaard could play alongside Rahm or Hatton at the 2025 Ryder Cup as with the DP World Tour’s ability to fine and suspend players who compete in conflicting LIV Golf events, the pair could be unable to maintain their DP World Tour memberships heading into next season when the Ryder Cup is held at Bethpage.
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The Telegraph reported in January that Hojgaard had rejected an offer from LIV Golf, as had Englishman and Ryder Cup winner Tommy Fleetwood.
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Hojgaard has experienced several things for the first time in his fledgling career during the last seven months. He has played in the Ryder Cup, the Players Championship and the Masters, with the latter providing much excitement and reason for encouragement.
He was paired with Scheffler in the penultimate group in the third round at Augusta National but like the rest of the field, Hojgaard couldn’t keep pace with the rampant World No.1, and eventual champion, and finished in a tie for 16th.
Having only celebrated his 23rd birthday during the week of his first attempt at TPC Sawgrass too, Hojgaard does not need to be despondent, rather the opposite as he prepares to tackle the tournament here in the Dominican Republic which he almost won last year, but for a fierce effort by the eventual winner Matt Wallace.
His effort at Augusta was the best of his six major championship appearances so far and while speaking to the media on Wednesday at a windswept Puntacana, he revealed what he learned about himself while briefly contending to win the Green Jacket.
“It’s a very, very easy to get caught up in the moment of what could go right and what could happen if you play really good golf. I think Max Homa said it pretty well, sometimes you catch yourself thinking about what could potentially happen if you play some really good golf now and you just need to get away from it,” he added.
“You need to get away from the outcome and the process more like on every shot in a given moment, what situation do you have now, what do I need to do. I feel like it’s so easy in a stretch like that you’re thinking a bit too far ahead.
“I also learned that in major golf, sometimes pars are really good and you’ve got to be really disciplined on every hole. I know there are certain par 5s you want to make birdies at, but if you make pars around Augusta, you’ve done a really good job especially how you see that tournament turns out.
“When you see that leaderboard at the end of Sunday, you probably look at the surprise that scoring is that way compared to the first couple of days. So I think that’s very important going forward that in a major championship, it’s very unusual that somebody runs away with it, but you’ve just got to stay in there somehow.”
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