25 Things You Didn't Know About Nicolai Hojgaard

Nicolai Hojgaard is considered one of the game's rising talents, and has already had considerable success on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour since turning professional. 

He also made his Ryder Cup debut in 2023, where Team Europe lifted the trophy in Rome. Get to know him better with these 25 facts:

1. Hojgaard was born on 12 March 2001 in Billund, Denmark.

2. Nicolai has an identical twin brother, Rasmus Hojgaard, who is also a professional golfer and a multiple DP World Tour winner himself. They both turned professional at the same time in 2019. 

3. The pair started playing the game of golf when they were four years old.

4. The name Hojgaard in Danish means "high farm" or "high garden".

5. Nicolai won his first professional tournament, the Bravo Tours Open on the Nordic Golf League, in 2018 whilst still an amateur.

6. In the same year, he also won the European Amateur, which secured him a place at The Open.

7. Nicolai made his Major debut in that tournament. He played alongside Webb Simpson and Si Woo Kim and shot rounds of 72-76 to miss the cut. On the experience, he said: "It was quite fun because when we came Monday I went to the clubhouse to do all the things you need to do, sign in and stuff.

"I opened the door and the first two guys I saw in there were Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy talking to each other and I was standing in the door like. 'this is so cool.'"

8. Nicolai and Rasmus played in the 2018 Junior Ryder Cup together and halved their first match against Akshay Bhatia and Michael Thorbjornsen.

9. Nicolai and Rasmus shot to prominence when they teamed up with John Axelsen to win the 2018 Eisenhower Trophy for Denmark at the World Amateur Team Championship.

10. In 2019, Nicolai stated one of his biggest ambitions was to play in the Ryder Cup alongside his brother. He said: "One of our biggest goals is to play the Ryder Cup together – to follow in the footsteps of the Molinari brothers."

11. Nicolai came agonisingly close to securing his first DP World Tour victory in just his seventh start, at the 2019 KLM Open. He shot four rounds in the 60s and yet lost out to Sergio Garcia by one shot.

12. It wasn't long until Hojgaard did have his first DP World Tour win, with victory in the 2021 Italian Open at the venue for the 2023 Ryder Cup, Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

13. That helped Nicolai create a piece of DP World Tour history, because it came the week after Rasmus won the Omega European Masters. His win made it the first time in the Tour's history that brothers had won successive tournaments.

14. A second DP World Tour win came just five months later, in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship.

15. Hojgaard has yet to make a hole-in-one.

16. Nicolai's favourite golfer is Rory McIlroy.

17. Former World No.1 Adam Scott has likened Nicolai's game with Dustin Johnson. After playing alongside the Dane at the 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Scott said: "I would just tell him to become a great wedge player because he is never going to lose that hitting ability. Dustin Johnson worked really hard on his wedges and became a machine out on tour. It looks like Dustin playing to me."

18. Nicolai was granted a special temporary membership of the PGA Tour in 2023, and he almost won one of its events. In the end, he had to settle for runner-up in the Corales Puntacana Championship behind Matt Wallace.

19. Hojgaard's best ever finish in a Major came in the 2023 Open at Royal Liverpool, where he finished T23.

20. After Rasmus withdrew from the 2023 Hero Cup with an injury, Nicolai was his replacement on the Continental Europe team, in a match which was considered an early chance for Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald to assess his options. 

21. Nicolai was named one of the Luke Donald's six wildcards for the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone.

22. He played two four ball matches as well as the Sunday singles in his Ryder Cup debut but only managed 0.5 points after a halve with Jon Rahm in his first match.

23. He is signed with Callaway and uses a full bag of Callaway clubs as well as ball.

24. Nicolai Hojgaard's caddie is Christian Christensen.

25. His biggest win to date came at the 2023 DP World Tour Championship, where he  won by two strokes to win $3m and move into the world's top 50 for the first time. He also finished 2nd in the Race to Dubai after his victory.

How far does Nicolai Hojgaard drive it?

Nicolai Hojgaard is one of the longest hitter in the game, with his average distance of 318.5 yards on the DP World Tour putting him over 18 yards longer than tour average. He ranked fifth on the PGA Tour in driving distance for 2023 with an average of 317.7 yards.

Nicolai Hojgaard swing