After some tough times over recent years, Nicolai von Dellingshausen is reaping the rewards of putting in the hard yards as he bids to continue his fine form at the BMW International Open.
The German arrives on home soil as one of the in-form players on Tour after backing up his maiden DP World Tour title in bordering Austria with back-to-back top tens in the Netherlands and Italy.
But, while confidence is understandably high for the 32-year-old at the moment, he is aware that getting to this point has not been an easy process.
A “nightmare” season saw him lose his DP World Tour card in 2023, only to quickly regain it at Qualifying School, before struggling again as he dropped back to the HotelPlanner Tour.
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But since his promotion back to Golf’s Global Tour last year, Von Dellingshausen has found his mojo and is in the mix to win the European Swing, which comes to a close this week as a strong international field assembles at Golfclub München Eichenried.
"Life’s good right now," he said.
"As I’ve been saying, the form has been strong, and the confidence has been there for a while. Now the results are starting to follow, and that just adds another boost. It’s a great feeling.
"We’ve been doing a lot of good work within the team, especially on things like holding on to those positive feelings and memories, and just taking stock of what’s been working.
"We’ve actually been doing things well for quite a while now - this is just the result of that work starting to show. We’ll keep sticking to what we’re doing and hope it continues.
"Of course, we’re also aware that it won’t always go like this - that’s golf, but I’m just really happy to be in this position right now."
Up to a career-high 178th in the world, Von Dellingshausen is returning to the event and scene of his DP World Tour debut in 2017, when he finished in a credible tie for 26th.
One of 15 Germans in the field this week, alongside Marcel Siem and Matti Schmid among others, the recent first-time DP World Tour winner is embracing the expectation that comes with playing in front of home fans.
"It’s always a bit like coming home, even though technically it’s not, since I live 600 kilometres away, but this is where I played my first DP World Tour event back in 2017," said Von Dellingshausen, whose best performance at this event came in 2022 with a tie for fifth.
"So there are a lot of positive memories here, and I always love coming back."
Already enjoying a career-best season on Tour, ranked 17th on the Race to Dubai Rankings, Von Dellingshausen could yet improve his year by qualifying for The Open later this month.
At the end of the BMW International Open, the top five, not otherwise exempt, on the Race to Dubai Rankings (within the top 20) will earn a spot at Royal Portrush, with another good result this week required to boost his hopes of securing a long-awaited Major Championship debut.
"Honestly, I haven’t thought about The Open or anything like that over the past few weeks," he said.
"I’m not going to start now. I’ll just keep playing the same way I’ve been playing - it’s been working.
"If a spot at The Open comes out of it, that’s amazing. If not, I’ve still played some really good golf, and I’m proud of that."
Von Dellingshausen will be joined by countrymen Siem and 2008 BMW International Open winner Martin Kaymer over the opening two rounds.
