From Nine Back to Top: Reitan’s Wild Ride to Glory in Belgium
Kristoffer Reitan stuns the field with a record-setting charge to capture his first DP World Tour win at the Soudal Open
Kristoffer Reitan began his Sunday morning nine shots behind the leader and nearly forgotten in the Soudal Open conversation. By sundown, the Norwegian had rewritten the narrative with a course-record 62, a sensational late surge, and a birdie in the playoff that secured his maiden DP World Tour title.
At Rinkven International Golf Club in Antwerp, Reitan’s dream round left him at 13 under, waiting for the rest of the field to catch—or collapse. They mostly stumbled. Ewen Ferguson, the overnight leader, battled back and forth with the lead but ultimately faltered at the final hole, failing to get up and down after a grandstand-bound approach.
That sent Ferguson, Reitan, and Dutchman Darius van Driel—who birdied the final three holes with a flourish—into a three-man playoff. After a nervy par on the first extra hole, Reitan dropped the decisive putt on the second, clinching victory in storybook fashion.
“This has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid,” said a visibly moved Reitan. “A few years ago I thought about walking away from the game. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. But I kept going. I stuck to the process. And today… it just felt like it was meant to be.”
The 26-year-old birdied nine of his final 15 holes, including a dazzling four-in-a-row run from the 10th. His only blemish, a bogey on the third, became a footnote in a round for the ages. While challengers flared and faded, Reitan held firm.
Van Driel’s finish was just as remarkable, birdieing from 25 feet at the last to force extra holes. Ferguson, aiming for a fourth career win, looked steady until a missed fairway on 18 left him needing brilliance—and finding none.
China’s Haotong Li, South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence, American Troy Merritt, and Englishmen John Parry and Jordan Smith shared fourth at 10 under. But the spotlight belonged solely to the soft-spoken man from Oslo.
Reitan's win lifts him into the top ten in the Race to Dubai and atop the European Swing Rankings, and perhaps more importantly, silences any lingering doubts about his place among the continent’s elite.
“I wasn’t thinking about winning,” he admitted. “Just one shot at a time. But by the end, it really was my day.”
And what a day it was.