Jacques Kruyswijk is hoping that a newfound sense of confidence following a maiden European Challenge Tour win can propel him to more success when he tees it up in the Indoor Golf Group Challenge this week, the second of back-to-back events in Sweden.
The South African produced a birdie-birdie finish to secure a two-stroke victory at the Dormy Open at Askersunds Golfklubb on Sunday, and with it climbed 209 places on the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
The 30-year-old is 47th in the Rankings and is now targeting a place in the top 20 come the end of the season and a return to the DP World Tour.
“The win last week jumped me over 200 spots on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, which was something I hadn’t even thought about,” he said. “The last six years I’ve been on the DP World Tour, and it’s been hard to find my feet coming back to the Challenge Tour.
“This win changes a lot. It makes me plan ahead a bit better and I’ve now got an idea of what I want to do until the end of this year. I’ve got something to work for.
“Because I just wanted to play, I wasn’t so focussed on any rankings. I’ve been a bit between tours with getting entries into some DP World Tour events and then playing on the Challenge Tour too, but the focus now is to try and get in the top 20 and get my card back.”
Kruyswijk is now in position to make a charge for the top 20 thanks to a memorable finish last week. With play suspended during round three due to the course being waterlogged, the tournament was then reduced to 54 holes.
When play resumed, the South African had just two and a half holes to play of his third round, and carded a par at the 16th before birdies at the 17th and 18th secured a win that has given him a major boost with seven events left on the 2023 Challenge Tour schedule.
“I think confidence is a massive part of this game,” he added. “I think my game has been the same for the last couple of years but my confidence is back. The fact that I could close it out when I needed to was great. It was a pressure-packed couple of holes.
“Confidence is a funny thing that comes and goes. I’ve got a lot of it now and I’m just going to try to ride it out and see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”
Kruyswijk joins a strong field in Sweden that includes the youngest winner in DP World Tour history, Matteo Manassero, Road to Mallorca Number Two Ugo Coussaud and two-time DP World Tour winner Tom Lewis.
Play gets under way on Thursday at 7:30am local time with Kruyswijk teeing off at 8:40am alongside Spaniard Ivan Cantero Gutierrez and Swede Jesper Svensson.
