Course Overview. The Danish Golf Championship heads to a new venue this year with Great Northern Golf Club in Kerteminde hosting its first DP World Tour event.
The 7,314 yard, Par 72 Jack Nicklaus design features wide, exposed fairways but plenty of strategic bunkering and water hazards, with approach shots particularly important given the large but heavily contoured Bentgrass-based greens. Three mid-range Par-5s between 535 and 577 yards will offer scoring opportunities, with the remaining Par-5, the 604 yard 5th, presenting a little more of a challenge. The short par-4 16th hole could also provide some drama at the business end of the tournament.
Although this is the first time Great Northern has hosted a DP World Tour event, the course has staged several Great Northern Challenge events on the Nordic Golf League, providing us with at least some evidence of how it plays in competition. Winning scores of between -3 and -14 for the 54-hole event over the years suggests that the layout can present a challenge if and when the wind blows, with the 2025 event seeing play suspended because conditions became too severe for balls to remain stationary on the greens.
Tournament Stats. We’ve published some key player statistics for this week’s Danish Golf Championship that will help to shape a view on players who traditionally play well at this event.
As previously noted, we’re at a new course this year so event history stats should be considered accordingly: Current Form | Tournament Form | First Round Leader Stats | Combined Current/Event Form Stats
Predictor Model. Our published Predictor Model is available here. As always you can build your own model using the variables available.
Winners & Prices. 2025: Marco Penge, 18/1; 2024: Frederic Lacroix, 33/1; 2023: Rasmus Hojgaard, 22/1; 2022: Oliver Wilson, 200/1; 2021: Bernd Wiesberger, 20/1; 2019: Bernd Wiesberger, 70/1; 2018: Matt Wallace, 40/1; 2017, Julian Suri: 60/1; 2016: Thomas Pieters: 12/1; 2015: David Horsey, 80/1; 2014: Marc Warren, 30/1.
Weather Forecast. The latest weather forecast for the area is here.
A warm, light southerly breeze will bring long sunny spells and temperatures nudging 30 Centigrade/86 Fahrenheit by Friday afternoon before the wind strengthens a little over the weekend and switches to the west, with temperatures dipping to 21 Centigrade/70 Fahrenheit by Sunday.
Event Winners – Incoming Form: Marc Warren arrived in Denmark 12 years ago in decent form having finished 3rd at the Scottish Open, 39th at the Open Championship then a creditable 15th at the US PGA Championship. He’d been putting consistently well for a few weeks, ranking inside the top-20 for putts per GIR on each of his last 4 starts and found enough greens on the week in windy conditions to compile a winning score.
David Horsey’s form the year after was less obvious having recorded 4 top-20 finishes in the season, however he too had been putting reasonably well, recording 3 top-20 putting performances out of his most recent 4 cuts made.
Thomas Pieters was 2nd favourite for this title 10 years ago having arrived after finishes of 4th at The Olympics and 2nd the week before when defending in the Czech Republic and his chance was a fairly obvious one, whereas Julian Suri was still relatively under-the-radar as he was still playing predominantly on the Challenge Tour, however a runner-up finish in Portugal and 16th on his previous start – where he was 4th going into the final day – suggested that he wasn’t far away from winning at this kind of level.
Matt Wallace arrived in Denmark in 2018 following a disappointing 36th in the Czech Republic when chasing an unlikely Ryder Cup qualification. With his only remaining chance to win and impress an on-looking Thomas Bjorn, the Englishman did just that by birdieing 5 of his final 6 holes to make a 4-man play-off which he won with birdies at both the first and second extra hole. Wallace had already won the Indian Open and BMW International Open in the season.
For the first of his wins, Bernd Wiesberger arrived with some steadily improving overall form to his name, having started the 2019 season slowly. 23rd at the Indian Open contained some brief glimpses of improvement before a 68/68 weekend in China had registered his best finish of the year. A final round 76 on his last start at the British Masters masked his overall progression and 70/1 was the reward for those who sided with the Austrian. The Covid-delayed defence of his title in 2021 by the Austrian came off of fairly non-descript form.
Oliver Wilson’s win in 2022 came with a season’s best finish of 12th in Qatar 5 months prior, however there was at least a spark of form the previous week when firing a 2nd round 64 at Crans-sur-Sierre and taking just 109 putts over the course of the week:
Rasmus Hojgaard’s win at Himmerland in 2023 was frustrating for punters given that he’d withdrawn from the BMW International Open on his last start with a rib injury and that same ailment kept him out of the previous week’s British Masters too. The underlying form was undoubtedly there though with 3rd at the KLM Open 6 weeks before his best finish of the season to that point.
Frederic Lacroix grabbed his maiden DP World Tour title in this event 2 years ago, building on progressive form of 20th at the BMW International Open before the break for the Open Championship then 3rd at the Czech Masters the week before his success at Lübker Golf Resort:
Finally, to bring us fully up to date, Marco Penge won his second of three DP World Tour titles last year, having already won the Hainan Classic at the end of April. The Englishman was 10th to halfway the previous week in Aberdeen before eventually finishing 27th, then barely looked back after an opening round of 64 at Furesø Golf Klub:
- 2025: Marco Penge: 49/MC/26/1/MC/28/25/21/11/2/MC/27
- 2024: Frederic Lacroix: MC/50/65/21/MC/13/34/46/WD/MC/20/3
- 2023: Rasmus Hojgaard: 7/MC/38/20/6/16/MC/47/MC/3/50/WD
- 2022: Oliver Wilson: 42/MC/64/MC/MC/MC/70/MC/41/MC/33/44
- 2021: Bernd Wiesberger: 36/25/6/53/59/31/MC/42/MC/40/34/MC
- 2019: Bernd Wiesberger: MC/MC/51/42/MC/MC/MC/55/MC/23/14/70
- 2018: Matt Wallace: MC/3/20/51/MC/1/MC/MC/MC/MC/19/36
- 2017: Julian Suri: 31/1/3/23/11/MC/27/23/MC/16
- 2016: Thomas Pieters: 28/26/MC/27/16/29/30/86/4/2
- 2015: David Horsey: 42/15/MC/MC/38/11/MC/MC/66/33
- 2014: Marc Warren: 33/28/16/MC/29/MC/26/3/29/15
Event Form Of Winners: In terms of event form here in Denmark, Oliver Wilson and Matt Wallace both had some positive history and Bernd Wiesberger won at Himmerland either side of the Covid break, however aside from that there’s not a great deal of correlation:
- 2025: Marco Penge: MC
- 2024: Frederic Lacroix: 62/35
- 2023: Rasmus Hojgaard: MC/MC/MC/22
- 2022: Oliver Wilson: 26/60/4
- 2021: Bernd Wiesberger: 1
- 2019: Bernd Wiesberger: Debut
- 2018: Matt Wallace: 6
- 2017: Julian Suri: Debut
- 2016: Thomas Pieters: 35
- 2015: David Horsey: 39
- 2014: Marc Warren: Debut
As per last year in this event, we’re largely playing a guessing game with regards how this setup will play and which players it may favour. A slightly longer layout than recent years may appeal to the more aggressive types, although they’ll need to avoid a watery grave if they’re going to prevail this week.
