Danish Golf Championship: The Punter's Preview

Danish Championship tournament history

Previously called the Made in HimmerLand and before that, the Made in Denmark, the Danish Golf Championship has been in existence since 2014, but this is only the 12th edition of the event as the 2021 edition was lost to the pandemic.

The Backtee New Course at the HimmerLand Golf and Spa Resort hosted eight of the first nine editions but having visited the Lübker Golf Resort in Aarhus for the first time two years ago and the Furesø Golf Club 12 months ago, the Danish Golf Championship moves on to another new venue this time around - the Jack Nicklaus-designed Great Northern in Funen.

Venue

Great Northern, Kerteminde, Funen, Denmark

Course details

Par 72, 7314 yards

Built on reclaimed farmland and positioned around seven manmade lakes, the Great Northern is the first course in Denmark to be designed by Jack Nicklaus.

The standard par 72 layout is a faux links/parkland hybrid with wide fairways and large heavily contoured and often raised bentgrass greens.

The seven substantial artificial lakes, with interconnected streams and ponds, come into play on 11 holes in total, most notably on the par five finishing hole which has an island green.

It's an exposed wind-affected layout with rolling hills and elevation changes of up to 40 metres.

Although new to the DP World Tour, the Great Northern has staged the 54-hole Great Northern Challenge on the Nordic Golf League five times between 2021 and 2025. 

Weather forecast

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at midday on Thursday 

First 11 tournament winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2025 - Marco Penge -16 21.020/1 (Furesø Golf Club)
2024 - Frederic Lacroix -14 55.054/1 (Lübker Golf Resort)
2023 - Rasmus Hojgaard -13 36.035/1 (playoff)
2022 - Oliver Wilson -21 320.0319/1
2021 - Bernd Wiesberger -21 27.026/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Bernd Wiesberger -14 120.0119/1
2018 - Matt Wallace -19 38.037/1 (playoff) (Silkeborg Ry Golfklub)
2017 - Julian Suri -19 80.079/1
2016 - Thomas Pieters -17 14.013/1
2015 - David Horsey -13 120.0119/1
2014 - Marc Warren -9 28.027/1

Brits enjoy the Danish challenge

Denmark's climate isn't too dissimilar to that endured year after year by the Brits so it's perhaps not surprising that and Englishman and a Scotsman fought out the finish in 2022 and someone from the British Isles finished first or second in each of the first six editions.

An Austrian and an Italian filled the first two places in 2021 but Englishmen, Richard Bland and Jordan Smith, finished tied for third alongside Jason Scrivener and three Scotsmen contended in 2024.

Richie Ramsy finished third and Robert MacIntyre and Marc Warren finished tied fourth. And last year the title was claimed by Englishman, Marco Penge.

Will the well-rested compete?

Since the BMW International Open at the start of July, the only chance of tournament golf on the DP World Tour in the last five weeks has been at the Scottish Open and the Open Championship, or in the two co-sanctioned opposite field events over the pond, the ISCO Championship and the Corales Puntacana Championship, which were played in the same weeks as the Scottish and the Open. There are plenty of DP World Tour players in the line-up this week that didn't play in any of those four events.

That big gap in the schedule in the middle of summer must be frustrating for those that didn't make it into the two strong fields in the UK or that didn't want the expense and hassle of a short stint in the states, and quite how they'll fare on a return to tournament golf after such a lengthy break is hard to gauge but it may offer up an opportunity to others.

After his brilliant performance in the Open (finished sixth) and his runaway success in the LIV UK event the following week, Lucas Herbert will be a popular choice for punters this week in Denmark but away from the front of the market, the HotelPlanner Tour players might be worthy of consideration.

Since 1000.0999/1 chance, Michael Hollick, eagled the 72^nd hole in Munich to claim the BMW International Open on the DP World Tour there have been four events in mainland Europe on the HotelPlanner Tour, in Germany, Czechia, Estonia and last week in Scotland, so the HotelPlanner Tour regulars that have got into the field here may have a bit of an edge over many of the regular DP World Tour players in the line-up.

Rasmus likely to contend again

Home hero, Rasmus Hojgaard, should enjoy this week's venue but whether he'll be any value in the market is debatable.

He has a decent record on links and links-like layouts (won the Irish Open at Royal County Down in 2024) and after missing his first four cuts in his homeland, he's contended to varying degrees in each of the last four editions of this event.

His event form figures, that read MC-MC-MC-22-1-53-2, are a bit misleading as he sat second after round one before he finished 22^nd in 2022 and when defending the title in 2024, he led after round one and sat second at halfway before eventually finished 53^rd.

At the time of writing, Hojgaard is sitting in a tie for 72^nd in the Wyndam Championship on the PGA Tour, having finished fourth at the Rocket Classic the week before so although he had a poor third round at Sedgefield on Saturday (two-over-par 72), he boasts both current form and event form.

In-running trends at the Great Northern

Having been played over only 54 holes, and having only five editions to evaluate, it's debatable how much we can read into how the Great Northern Challenge has panned out here but for the record, none of the five winners were leading after the first round and only two of the five were in front after two rounds.

The inaugural winner, Peter Launer Baek, led by two with a round to go and the last winner, Martin Eriksson, was tied for the lead after 36 holes.

The 2023 winner, Adam Andersson, sat fifth and two back after 36 holes but the other two winners sat second and just one of the lead with 18 to play.

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