jordan smith Archives

Nicolai Hojgaard: One of golf’s brightest young stars

That impressive win at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital only strengthened the 20-year-old’s reputation as one of golf’s brightest young stars – alongside his twin brother Rasmus.

Nicolai needs one more win to equal his sibling’s tally of three DP World Tour titles and, following a performance which – barring a stumble midway through the final round – was nigh on perfect, he feels he is in with a great chance of claiming wins in successive weeks. “The phone has been buzzing the last few days so I haven’t talked or texted anyone yet, I’m trying to get into tournament mode now and focus on the week ahead, and hopefully play some good golf again.” the Dane told the reporters.

“For me the most important part of this victory was that I was struggling quite a bit before coming here and then I struggled around 9 to 12. I had to dig deep, two shots behind with six to play. From there on I played some really good golf and that gave me some confidence. I think I can use that quite a bit in the future.”

Smith aimes for another win at Al Hamra

Jordan Smith, meanwhile, has enjoyed a strong start to his 2022 campaign, with a top ten at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a tie for 12th at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and then coming close to a second career victory last week – only to finish runner-up. “Really pleased with my start to the season. Been asked the question a few times, and there have obviously been some changes from previous years. I knew something needed to change and we had a look back at stats and performances and how I was feeling. We weren’t sure how it was going pan out this year but it’s worked out really well, I’m really happy with how everything is with the game and off-course.”, Smith said after the last weekend.

The Englishman is riding a wave of confidence, having won in Ras Al Khaimah on the Challenge Tour in 2016, and is hoping he can emerge victorious once again at Al Hamra. “Coming back I had good memories from 2016, obviously from winning here. So I came here with good memories and thoughts and I feel really comfortable around this course, don’t know what it is about it. It’s just nice and relaxed and a bit quieter than Dubai, I love the place.”

Text: DP World Tour

ISPS HANDA WORLD INVITATIONAL

Q. Jordan, a 62 to start the week. Give us an assessment of your day.

JORDAN SMITH: Not half bad. Not half bad. Yeah, just everything came together really. I’ve been struggling with my iron play recently, but that and my wedge game and my putting were really, really good today. I’m not going to lie.

So yeah, just carry on for tomorrow. More of that would be great.

Q. You said you’ve been struggling with your iron play recently. At the start of the week and on the range did you feel like this could be a good week?

JORDAN SMITH: I’ve felt like it’s been sort of trending in the right way. It just hasn’t all come together at the right point. My putting has even been good and my iron play has been good, it’s been one or the other, but today it sort of all came together, and more of the same.

Q. 62 today. Last year in the Irish Open you shot 65 here at Galgorm. Why do you like this course so much?

JORDAN SMITH: I don’t know to be honest. I don’t know. Yeah, I just like the layout. I think it suits me — I think there’s a lot of tee shots where you’ve got to hit left to right, and yeah, it’s been suiting my eye so far, so yeah.

Q. Whenever you look at that back nine, what were you doing on the front nine?

JORDAN SMITH: Not hitting it close enough. Not hitting it close enough.

Q. I’m only joking.

JORDAN SMITH: I think the back nine there’s a lot more wedges into holes, but I think the front nine there’s a lot more long irons. There’s still a few wedges and obviously you’ve got a drivable second, but that was the difference, yeah. Just didn’t hit the longer clubs close enough.

Q. Was there an aspect of staying patient knowing that you could get scoring on the back nine?

JORDAN SMITH: I think so, yeah. I think so. I think the few times I’ve been here I’ve sort of — the front nine has been okay and then you sort of get your score going on the back nine, I think, with the par-5s. Obviously you don’t have any on the front nine. So yeah.

Q. 10 is a nice way to start the back nine with a par-5.

JORDAN SMITH: Yeah, definitely. I remember previously 9 used to be a par-5, but obviously that’s a par-4 now, so that was a driver and a 4-iron for us today. But yeah, I think the only difference is the back nine, yeah, you’ve got a lot more scoring opportunities.

Q. Coming into the week everyone sort of expected Massereene to be the one that people would be scoring at, but it seems to be Galgorm that everyone is. Does that surprise you in any way?

JORDAN SMITH: Not really, no. We went up to Massereene on Tuesday and it was rock hard. It was like a runway. If you missed the greens they were bouncing sort of 30, 40, 50 yards off the green. Even though it’s short, it was difficult with it being so firm, so I think with it being a bit softer here, the scoring has been better.

Q. Going into tomorrow, do you put a number on what you’re trying to shoot, or what’s the game plan?

JORDAN SMITH: I think we’ve got a good game plan. I think Massereene you can’t really attack it too much. I think there’s a lot of lines off tees because like I said, it’s going to be bouncing off the fairways and into the rough and stuff. So I think you’ve just got to get a good game plan there and just attack when you can and just stay patient.

Interview transcript by asapsports.com