Indian Open: Colsaerts, early leader after a late career boost
The seasoned Belgian had almost given up his pro golf last year until a revival at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship revived his joy of playing
Gurugram: As far as bright starts go, Nicolas Colsaerts was the proverbial early bird after setting the bar on the morning of the first round in the $2.5 million Hero Indian Open DP World Tour event here on Thursday. Teeing off early, he shot a 4-under 68, getting to grips with the picturesque yet demanding DLF Golf and Country Club course.
The 42-year-old Belgian, marking 25 years as a golf pro, stumbled through the front nine with three bogeys and four birdies before sinking three birdies in a serene bogey-free back nine display, joined at the top by Marcus Kinhult. The 28-year-old Swede began brightly, sinking three birdies in his first four holes and, like Colsaerts, played a bogey-free second nine that had a lone birdie.
England’s in-form Marcus Armitage also shot a 4-under 68 in the evening, making it a 3-way tie for the Day 1 lead.
Teeing up in India was far from Colsaerts mind even six months ago. The last of his three wins on the DP World Tour had come in 2019, and he had endured a nearly life-threatening kidney ailment in 2022 and then acknowledged depression, caused mainly due to the illness he had to battle.
He had thus decided to retire as a professional golfer, and had decided that the Alfred Dunhill Cup Links Championship last October and the Open de France, the oldest event in the continent, would be it for him. And then it all magically changed.
Something clicked as he played brilliantly at the iconic Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, going into the final day of Alfred Dunhill in contention. He rose to joint-lead with Tyrrell Hatton before the latter pipped him to second with a final hole birdie. Having regained the DP World Tour card with that second spot and the elements of his game that had seemingly disappeared, Colsaerts was ready to go again.
“It’s funny how when you don’t really care that much, you seize an opportunity when it is there, and you enjoy every minute of it,” he told DP World Tour in a subsequent interview. “All of a sudden when you don’t put that unnecessary pressure on yourself, you just play the game again and it felt incredibly good.”
Colsaerts was an important member of the 2012 European Ryder Cup side that pulled off the ‘Miracle at Medinah’, regarded as the greatest comeback in the tournament’s history. The dramatic tie in Illinois saw Europe down 4-10 and then go into the final day 6-10. But Europe scored 8.5 points of the final day’s 12 to clinch victory. On Cup debut as Spanish skipper Jose Maria Olazabal’s pick, his memorable moment was partnering Lee Westwood to beat Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in fourball.
The Belgian, one of Luke Donald’s vice-captains for Europe’s Ryder Cup challenge in the United States this year, missed the cut in the 2024 Indian Open, but is upbeat now though he had made only three cuts in 11 tournaments coming to India.
“It went great today,” he said after his round on Thursday. “It’s a difficult golf course. So, anyone who will shoot under-par today is going to be extremely happy. The rough is high this year, the greens are firmer. It’s a little bit like a mini-US Open.”
He could savour the challenges the course will throw up. “All in all, it’s a course that if you play good golf you’re going to enjoy playing. I would like to stay as patient as I was today and keep understanding that the pars are good, if you make a few birdies it’s great, everybody’s going to make bogeys. Just try to keep the ball in play as much as possible.”
