The Danish Golf Championship kicks off this Thursday. It is the last stop of the Closing Swing of the DP World Tour, the eleventh edition of a tournament that has been held since 2014 and was only missed during the Covid year. The big news this week is the course, the Fureso Golf Klub. It is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen and is hosting this championship for the first time. In 2015, it was completely remodelled to coincide with the 40th anniversary of its inauguration. The buildings housing the clubhouse and locker rooms date back to 1370.
The Fureso Golf Klub also hides an interesting story. Beyond some of the 19 Danes playing this week, it could be that the Spaniard Pablo Ereño, invited for the second consecutive week to a DP World Tour tournament, is the only one in the field who has officially competed here. It was in the year 2021, specifically, the European Under 18 Team Championship.
Spain presented a team of six men composed of the aforementioned Ereño, Josele Ballester, Jaime Montojo, Pablo Alperi, Sergio Jiménez, and Álvaro Portillo. The red team finished in fifth place, which is not a disaster, although far from the aspirations and expectations that existed. It was also a cruel week, as the quarter-final defeat against Italy was one that leaves a mark for the worse.
The European Under 18 Championship consists of two phases. The first two days are played in stroke play format, and the five best results from each team count. Spain did not fare well in this phase. There were eleven countries, and the top eight advanced to the title fight, the next match play phase. Our team finished in seventh place. Pablo signed two scorecards of 77 and 72 strokes. Things did not go very well for him, but his results counted among the top five both days for the team’s overall. The best Spaniard in these first two days was Sergio Jiménez.
The top eight that qualified to fight for the title were, in this order: Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands. Our team faced Italy in the quarter-finals. The result of this duel was very cruel. The Spaniards took a 3-0 lead. Ereño won his doubles match with Josele Ballester by 1 up, Portillo and Montojo did the same, and Josele won the first singles of the day. Only one more point was needed to seal the victory, and there were four matches in play. Well, Italy staged an incredible comeback. They won the next four matches, three of them on the 18th hole, including Ereño’s singles against Flavio Michetti, and eliminated Spain.
From there, our team only had to fight for fifth place, and they achieved it. They won the next match against Denmark, with another doubles victory for Ereño, this time with Álvaro Portillo, and they won again against France in the final battle for fifth or sixth place. Once again, Pablo won partnering with Portillo. He did not play singles in the last two duels. Ballester won all the points he played in match play format. The final victory went to Germany, where Tiger Christensen played, a player with great potential who last year reached the Final of the DP World Tour School and has played some tournaments this year on the HotelPlanner Tour and the first division. His best result has been eleventh in the German Challenge. He has four top 17 finishes.
Pablo Ereño is the only participant from that Under 18 who is playing this week in the Danish Golf Championship. This fact already indicates the fantastic potential of the Madrid native who turned professional this year at the beginning of June. Of all those who played that 2021 championship, only Josele Ballester and the Frenchman Martin Couvra are already established in professional circuits. Couvra, in fact, is already a winner on the DP World Tour.
