For Kristoffer Reitan, all of this has been unexpected.
Standing on the 18th green at Quail Hollow Club, having just outlasted Rickie Fowler and Alex Fitzpatrick to win the Truist Championship, a PGA Tour Signature Event, it was hard for Reitan to sum up a career-changing win, one that perfectly gels with his unique golf journey.
It wasn’t long ago that the Norwegian put the clubs down. Golf no longer brought him happiness, only despair. With the spark that used to bring him so much joy extinguished, Reitan contemplated his next move. He thought about venturing into the YouTube golf waters or perhaps ditching golf totally. Then, a few months later, Reitan discovered that the spark wasn’t gone; it just needed to be stoked. He picked the clubs up when he wanted to, at his own pace. He played with friends and hit the shots he wanted, when he wanted; the love came back.
He went from the Challenge Tour to the DP World Tour, and then, a year ago at the Soudal Open, lightning struck and everything changed. Reitan started that Sunday nine shots off the lead. But he made nine birdies in his final 15 holes to shoot a course-record 62 and eventually win in a playoff.
“I don’t know what to say,” a stunned Reitan said that day in Belgium. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. I keep thinking back to a few years ago when I was considering stopping playing because I didn’t find it enjoyable anymore, didn’t see progress, and to be able to turn it around the way I have been doing the last couple of years has been amazing — to seal it with victory here is ridiculous.”
That win, and another that followed, helped him secure a PGA Tour card. Then came another climb. He started slowly this season as a rookie, but his game has clicked over the last month. Then, last week, the unexpected happened again as Reitan got into the Cadillac Championship due to Jake Knapp’s Thursday morning withdrawal. He vaulted into contention at Doral but faded on Sunday. As he finished his final hole in Miami, Reitan didn’t think he would make it into the field this week in Charlotte. Despite a double bogey on his final hole, Reitan squeaked into the Truist field and made the most of an unlikely chain of events.
One week later, he had outclassed the best in the world and reached a place that he was worlds away from when he hung up the clubs in 2022.
“I don’t have any words, to be honest,” Reitan said after his win. “This is way more than I expected and for it to happen this quickly is just unreal. Yeah, a dream come true.”
Reitan said he thought about being a YouTube golfer to try to get the “fun competitiveness back.” He was contemplating which road to take in life and what role golf would play in that path. In the end, what he found was something to take with him on the long road that led him to his conquering moment at Quail Hollow.
“So I was just trying to find ways to make it more fun to give my journey in golf a little bit of energy, and trying to have fun while I’m playing so that I can endure the hardships that follow, yeah, with professional golf,” Reitan said.
“It helped me find my game again. It helped me discover my talents again,” Reitan told CBS’ Amanda Balionis. “Yeah, that was something really important to me, which I try to remind myself of every single day. So that was definitely a huge thing for me getting back and starting to play some good golf again.”
The 28-year-old Norwegian started his climb in the lower ranks of the European Tour. That was necessary to become the kind of golfer who could tame Quail Hollow and a field of the world’s best. Since picking his clubs back up and committing to the professional golf grind, Reitan has always believed this was possible, that he could thrive at the top level. Everything just needed to come together, brick by brick.
“I think there’s a lot of pieces that need to fall in place,” Reitan said. “There’s a whole puzzle that needs to shape up eventually. I think I’ve made some steps in multiple areas of the game, but definitely a big one for sure is the belief that I can do it. And I knew that I could do it here as well on the PGA Tour.”
But just as he lost for words after his unlikely comeback win in Belgium, Kristoffer Reitan was stunned at the speed of his ascent.
When he tapped in the winning putt to cap a final-round, 2-under 69 that saw him overtake Fitzpatrick and hold off Fowler and Nicolai Hojgaard, Reitan’s emotions didn’t sweep over him. He briefly brought his hand to his mouth and rubbed his face. Then, he smiled, hugged Fitzpatrick and his caddie and soaked in a moment years in the making — one that started with a YouTube golf dalliance and ended Sunday with an unexpected win.
The kind Kristoffer Reitan always believed would come, even when he couldn’t see it.
“Absolutely over the moon. Happened way sooner than I would have imagined,” Reitan said. “Just absolutely thrilled. Awesome, awesome experience. Very, very grateful.”
