Nicolai Højgaard is excited at the prospect of playing with his twin brother Rasmus for Continental Europe at the Team Cup as he declared their drive to realise their “biggest goal” of making a Ryder Cup team together.
The 23-year-old Dane was a late call-up for the inaugural edition of the Team Cup two years ago in the absence of Rasmus and seized the opportunity to impress, contributing 3.5 points from his four matches to help Continental Europe to victory over Great Britain & Ireland.
From there, Nicolai went on to earn a Captain’s Pick from Luke Donald into the victorious Team Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, before becoming a Rolex Series winner and a member on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.
Under the leadership of returning Continental Europe Playing Captain Francesco Molinari, Nicolai is eager to make a strong start to his year, with European Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald presiding over this week’s three-day match play event in Abu Dhabi.
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While the Højgaard twins played together in the 2018 Junior Ryder Cup, this could be the first time they do so in a team environment as professionals - something that excites him greatly.
"That would be great," he said. "That's a goal of ours, and the biggest goal for us is going out in the Ryder Cup together, and that's the main goal for us.
"But this would be a great start, and hopefully Luke and Fran see that when we are going to make pairings, maybe today or tomorrow, I don't know when it's going to be announced.
"Hopefully we get the chance. We both really want that, and that's what we've thought about for a long time since the Team Cup was on the schedule again."
The Højgaard twins are among five Danish golfers in the ten-man Continental Europe side at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort, with fellow DP World Tour winners Thorbjørn Olesen and Niklas Nørgaard joined by last season's European Challenge Tour Number One Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
Such is the success of Danish golf and depth of talent, the country has become the envy of many over the past decade and Nicolai is thrilled to share this experience with so many countrymen.
"There's nothing better than representing your country and continent," he added.
"So having five Danes here is mind-blowing to be fair. I think it's half of the team. You'd never have thought that as a Dane, never.
"Now to produce that many good players, and a few guys coming up, as well, it's great for the game back home, and going forward, and this week, we've got some new faces with some incredibly good golfers.
"If you're here, you've done something really well and deserving to be here. There might be many Danes but everyone is deserving to be here."
Nørgaard is making his debut in the Team Cup after a breakthrough campaign last year in which he won his first DP World Tour title at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo.
Known as one of the biggest hitters on the DP World Tour, ranking third for driving distance on the 2024 Race to Dubai, he rose from outside the top 300 in the world to inside the top 100.
And with us now in a Ryder Cup year, Nørgaard is eager to learn from those around him, while also aiming to continue to catch the eye.
"That's what we are here for and to get a lot of experience, talk to the captains and get some knowledge that we don't have," he said.
"It's also an environment for us to learn from because you don't often get a chance to pick the brains of the guys that in the [team] room."
Another member of the Danish quintet this week is Olesen, who may be making his Team Cup debut, but boasts plenty of experience in team competition.
Like Nørgaard, eight-time DP World Tour winner Olesen, who represented Europe at the 2018 Ryder Cup, was one of four automatic qualifiers for Molinari's side.
"It's fun because we all know each other well on DP World Tour, Europe against Great Britain," he said of his excitement at once again playing team match play.
"There's definitely a great rivalry there especially when you know each other so well.
"I'm obviously looking forward to it, and obviously also having Francesco as a captain this week is amazing.
"Feel like I know him really well and played Ryder Cup with him and stuff like that. Having him as captain is going to be great fun."
