Miracle at Medinah star Colsaerts keen to make a mark on rare India visit

Three-time DP World Tour winner Nicolas Colsaerts is looking forward to the $2.25 million 2024 Hero Indian Open which tees off at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Thursday.

The 41-year-old Belgian was one of the stars of Europe’s stunning Miracle at Medinah Ryder Cup victory over hosts USA in 2012 where he teamed up with England’s Lee Westwood to beat the heavily favoured home pairing of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the Friday fourballs as a debutant.

In the years since, Colsaerts has seen his fortunes rise and fall, including a battle with auto-immune disease that took him out of golf for close to two years, and as one of the seniormost members of the DP World Tour, the Belgian has developed a more philosophical outlook to his life, and golf.

On a rare visit to India, Colsaerts said he was grateful on a day to day basis for what the game had given him and where it had taken him. “It's nice to come to a place where I've not had the chance to come a lot. It's definitely different and at my age, I find it quite fulfilling to come to a place that is a little bit different than usual,” he told the media on Tuesday.

“I've been playing on the European tour for so long, it's almost like now I'm more grateful to come to these places because of what they offer. Like I said, at my age, I look at where the game has taken me in the last 20, 25 years, and think that we're pretty grateful to have been able to do this for a long time.

“I've had different struggles for many different reasons the last couple of years. It's not a smooth ride. We've all seen really good players actually go through different stages of their career, but now I can really fully concentrate on myself and my golf, which I'm actually a bit more... I'm excited again to go and play tournaments, which wasn't necessarily the case in the last couple years.”

Colsaerts said he was looking forward to his outing at the venue, which he assessed as being among the toughest he has played on.

“It's a difficult golf course, so whatever your result may be, if you're queuing a top-5, top-10 finish, you would have played really good. That's one thing that excites me is to still test your game at the difficult courses that we play.

“This is probably among the top 5 or top 10 most difficult golf courses that we play during the season. So, if you have a good run here, you can pat yourself on the back.”

So what keeps him going despite the long years as a professional and coming through a difficult phase in terms of his health?

“When you tee the ball up on the first tee, it's always you against the golf course and you always want to see where you're at. Basically you always want to make the golf course yours in some way. You want to show the golf course that you can still tackle it, but it doesn't obviously work every day.

“I've been doing it for more than 20 years, and all of a sudden you ask yourself different questions, and who are you, where are you heading, what are your goals, still at my age. So it's been a package of questions to answer, and in some cases it takes a little bit longer to actually find your answers.

“Now when I wake up in the morning I know exactly why I'm doing this again, which wasn't the case in the last couple of years.

“I'm really excited to be here in Delhi. It's always great to come and play and support one of the Hero events. Obviously Dr Munjal has been a great supporter of the sport and the European Tour. So I think out of respect also for the person and what he's been able to do for the last couple of years, it's the least we can do. And the golf course is quite a challenging one.”

Meanwhile, England’s Alex Fitzpatrick won Tuesday’s $10,000 Hero Shot competition that included Anirban Lahiri, Shiv Kapur, Rasmus Hojgaard, Yannick Paul, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Nicolas Colsaerts, Guido Migliozzi and Eduardo Molinari given 60 second to hit nine balls each at a target created on the 18th green of the DLF Golf and Country Club. All eight were miked up to make it an interactive and fun event.

The shootout first eliminated Paul, Colsaerts, Lahiri and Kapur in the 100 yard contest before Hojgaard and Migliozzi were knocked out in the 110-yard semi-finals despite Hojgaard having recorded a whopping 235 points in the first round. In the final played at the 18th green target from a distance of 120 yards, Fitzpatrick outscored Molinaro 100 points to 70.