If there’s a formula to win a PGA Tour event, Nicolai Hojgaard certainly is not following it. He came to soggy San Diego off a 20-hour travel day, sleep deprived, without seeing 27 of the 36 holes he played on the first two days of the Farmers Insurance Open.
Flying blind? Flying high, actually.
Hojgaard hurdled the physically taxing arrival and the mental uncertainty of the mysteries that awaited off almost every tee at Torrey Pines to push golfer after golfer into the rear view.
Halfway through the Farmers, Hojgaard has flipped conventional golf wisdom on its head.
“Sometimes not knowing where the trouble is is a good thing,” Hojgaard, 22, said. “… It’s about trusting the execution part of it a little bit more.”
The 22-year-old Dane, sitting at 11-under, held the lead Thursday until the very end of the day, when Stephan Jaeger eagled his final hole of the round, No. 9 on the North Course, to go 12-under.
Hojgaard’s feat represented a pop quiz with no chance to study after being up all night.
The lack of familiarity — especially Wednesday, when he shot 5-under on the unforgiving South Course of U.S. Open fame — should have bitten him at some point. The lack of rest and recovery after finishing the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, 12 time zones away, should have sapped his batteries to the point of near delirium.
None of that happened.
Hojgaard played his first 36 holes at Torrey with only one bogey. He navigated a course where his sole exposure was nine holes during a practice round on the back nine of the North Course.
Buck the odds? He drove them 300 yards, straight into the heart of the fairway.
“I think that’s very important at times, that you focus on (fundamentals) more than just looking at the golf course, what you’re supposed to do, and go internal and focus on yourself and your own ball-striking and trying to put it in the fairway,” Hojgaard said.
“I feel like sometimes that’s a bit underrated.”
Hojgaard jetted from Dubai to Toronto to San Diego to crisscross the planet. In his first year as a full-fledged Tour member, in a challenging place where epic rains turned the deep rough into a card-crushing minefield, he handled it all the potential chaos with a shrug.
Haven’t been there. Haven’t done that.
“Haven’t won anything yet,” Hojgaard said. “I don’t think it’s the right way to go about it all the time, but certain times I think it’s good to have a different focus.”
Hojgaard’s career wins, which total three, include the Italian Open and the Ras al Khaimah Championship. Though those far-flung places on other continents underscore his ability to win, PGA Tour proving grounds offer unique teeth.
If he’s threatening to turn the corner, as the 51st ranked player in the world, his zig-zagging route leading to San Diego would amount to more than a bit of a stunner.
Acclimating to the massive travel odyssey has messed with Hojgaard’s internal clock. He slept four hours after Round 1, then snuck in another four hours, one hour at a time.
“Not much sleep at the moment,” he said. “I feel good in the morning, wake up early and feel fresh, but when we get to midday and afternoon, I can feel like (my) body is tired. But it’s getting better every day. We’ll find a way.”
There’s more rattling around in Hojgaard’s head as he shifts focus to the stretch run at the Farmers. He confirmed he turned down an offer from the rival LIV Tour.
Stepping away from a small mountain of guaranteed money at such a young age would require a lot of soul- and noodle-searching.
“It’s a tough decision as a young kid to make,” Hojgaard said. “I’m just starting to build my way at the moment, trying to find my own way in this game. That’s probably why I’ve focused on the path I’m on now.
“I have no problem with people going and playing. It’s about finding what’s right for everyone. For me, this just felt right.”
For now, Hojgaard remains signed up for the tests along the PGA Tour trail. The scenario that led him to San Diego, so soon after teeing it up in Asia, surely ranks near the top of that list.
Slaying the South right out of the precarious gate has to be one of the more impressive rounds, all things considered, in Farmers history.
“It probably takes a little bit of pressure (doing well on the South),” Hojgaard said. “But there’s still thick rough around the North Course. You’ve still got to hit the shots out there. … I’ve played some really good golf these two days so it kind of felt stress free, but I can see that you can get in trouble on both courses.”
Sleep? Overrated. Knowing the course? That, too.
So far, Hojgaard’s oddball formula is working just fine.
