Pro’s unfathomable comeback about something much deeper than first career win

Sunday wasn’t supposed to be Kristoffer Reitan’s day, but sometimes golf delivers the unthinkable.

The 27-year-old Norwegian started the final round of the DP World Tour’s Soudal Open nine shots off the lead set by Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson. A win wasn’t on Reitan’s mind when he teed off early at Rinkven International GC in Antwerp, Belgium.

Reitan birdied the first but bogeyed the third to get his round off to a ho-hum start. Then came the deluge: Reitan poured in nine birdies in his final 15 holes to shoot a course-record nine-under 62 and post the clubhouse lead at 13 under.

Ferguson held the lead when he stepped on the tee at the 18th, but a poor second shot flew over the green and against the grandstand. Ferguson failed to get up-and-down, setting up a three-way playoff with Reitan and Darius van Driel.

All three players made par on the first playoff hole, and the trio hit their approaches on the second playoff hole to within makable birdie distance. Van Driel and Ferguson both missed their birdie putts, which opened the door for Reitan to cap off a day no one saw coming. The Norwegian gave a confident stroke and rolled in the 15-foot birdie putt to claim his first DP World Tour title.

After the win, Reitan had a hard time finding the words to describe his improbable victory.

A few years back, he came close to giving up golf when he no longer found joy in the game he once loved. With that spark gone, he put his clubs down for a bit and only picked them back up to hit shots with friends. He even contemplated entering the YouTube golf waters.

But as is often the case, Reitan rediscovered the feeling without really searching. Picking up the clubs when he wanted to — to hit the shots he wanted — allowed him to tap back into his love for the game. A few years later, he found himself fist pumping in Belgium, having finally achieved a lifelong dream.

“I don’t know what to say,” Reitan said after the win. “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 any more, 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.”

Reitan didn’t wake up Sunday dreaming of a momentous comeback to grab a trophy in Belgium. He arrived at the course just hoping to put some good swings together and have something to build on entering the next event. Just trying to put one foot in front of the other, one swing after another. Then, the round started to build until it reached a crescendo hours later, with Reitan being the last man standing in Belgium.

“Did not at all,” Reitan said. “[Winning] wasn’t even on my mind. I just wanted to play a good round of golf, been working hard on trying to stick to my process recently.

“Obviously today I felt like it was a little bit my day and it was evident at the end that it was in fact my day. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Reitan’s journey back to golf was all about rediscovering the joy that first sparked the love of the game.

“I was just trying to have some fun,” Reitan said. “Anytime I would pick up the golf clubs after I took a break, it was just to have some fun with some friends, make some videos … Yeah, just having fun with my friends, and also the same goes for my swing, just trying to have fun. Fun means trying to hit hard swings and trying to his different shapes and just the stuff like that and trying to take the seriousness out of it, and that’s helped me a lot.

“I need to remind myself of that sometimes.”

Kristoffer Reitan once struggled to find joy on the golf course. On Sunday, while shooting the round of his life, he rode that joy to his first DP World Tour title in a moment no one saw coming.

It was a full-circle moment about the importance of grounding yourself in the inherent characteristics of what you love, the freeing powers of rediscovering your joy and the unthinkable moments that combination can deliver when you least expect it.