Rasmus Højgaard is delighted to bounce back from end-of-season heartbreak with a barnstorming DP World Tour campaign ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The Dane narrowly missed out on the one of ten PGA TOUR memberships, for the top ten in the Race To Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex not otherwise exempt, on offer during the 2022-23 season.
His pain at finishing 11th on the list after 45 weeks of tournament golf was somewhat lessened after twin brother Nicolai secured his maiden Rolex Series title at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
With his brother regularly crossing the Atlantic after becoming a dual member, Rasmus was determined to make amends and has done so by recording the best season of his career to sit third overall with two events remaining in the United Arab Emirates.
He kickstarted his year with a runners-up finish at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship back in January and pipped home favourite and Race To Dubai Rankings leader Rory McIlroy to the Amgen Irish Open in September, which came just two weeks after finishing third in the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo.
Højgaard has registered four more top tens to all-but secure his dual membership for the 2024-25 campaign, while he still harbours outside hopes of denying McIlroy from lifting his sixth Harry Vardon Trophy if he performs well in the DP World Tour Play-Offs, starting in Abu Dhabi.
How the top of the Race to Dubai Rankings look with two weeks to play 👀#ADGolfChamps | #RolexSeries
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 4, 2024
"Sitting there last year on that Sunday was a bit rough," Højgaard admitted. "I was obviously very, very happy to see Nicolai win the tournament, but for myself, it was tough that I missed out (by) one spot on a card for the PGA TOUR.
"I was very motivated to come out this year and play some good golf. I've managed that in stretches during the year. So yeah, it's been a great year. I'm happy where I'm at and try to squeeze the last bit out of these two events.
"It's probably a good thing that Nicolai went over there to start with. Now I can sort of guide myself around and hopefully not make some of the same mistakes.
"We talked a lot about it, and yeah, we're going to probably find a place over there and make it easier, not travelling over the Atlantic every other week.
"There's a lot of things on the plate right now that we are trying to figure out, but we're going to take a couple of weeks and probably in the off-season look at that. For now, we are both very focused on playing."
The competitive nature between the Højgaard twins and Matt Wallace was there to see during their practice round at Yas Links on Tuesday and the Dane revealed why it became so serious.
"There was more than money at risk and that's probably why it got so competitive," he said.
"So we were playing a birdies game, so whoever makes the most birdies. I made what was equivalent to six birdies, and Matt three and Nicolai two.
"The birdies meant that every birdie you were behind is a minute in the cold plunge. So it turned out that Nicolai has to do three minutes and Matt had to do two minutes.
"Matt's probably already done it so we didn't get to see it, but I'm definitely watching Nicolai."
