Kristoffer Reitan secured his maiden PGA Tour title in his 15th career start at the Truist Championship.
Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
Kristoffer Reitan had to wait anxiously to see if he would even make the Truist Championship field. That worry is gone for at least the next two years after the 28-year-old Norwegian captured his first PGA Tour win at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C.
Late Sunday, there was a four-way tie at 14 under par, with three of those players in the final two groups. The exception was Rickie Fowler, who shot a 65 on Sunday but bogeyed the 18th hole to drop to 13 under. Nicolai Højgaard fell off the pace with a bogey on the 16th, and Alex Fitzpatrick double-bogeyed the 17th to slip to 12 under.
That left Reitan, who birdied the par-4 14th to join the logjam at the top, then birdied the par-5 15th to build a cushion. He followed with three straightforward pars to finish at 15 under and seal the victory in his 15th PGA Tour start.
Reitan becomes the second Norwegian to win a PGA Tour event, following Viktor Hovland. However, his path was far more winding. He signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Texas but turned it down to turn professional, spending years grinding through the Challenge Tour and later the DP World Tour. There were difficult moments, including a consideration in 2022 to leave professional golf and focus on creating YouTube golf content.
“I think YouTube golf would have given me maybe some of that fun competitiveness back, maybe not the serious competitiveness, if that makes sense. So I was just trying to find ways to make it more fun to give my journey in golf a little bit of energy, and trying to have fun while I’m playing so that I can endure the hardships that follow, yeah, with professional golf,” Reitan told reporters.
That career shift never happened. Reitan earned his PGA Tour card through strong play in Europe last season, including a win at the Soudal Open. His early results on tour, such as a runner-up finish alongside compatriot Kris Ventura at the Zurich Classic last month, were enough to get him into the previous week’s signature event, the Cadillac Championship.
His entry into the Truist Championship required another player’s score to fall his way, thanks to the PGA Tour’s intricate formula that rewards hot players with spots in no-cut, big-money events. Reitan was already set for next week’s PGA Championship but has now earned berths in the remaining major championships this year, as well as the rest of the signature events. He also takes home $3.6 million along with the Truist trophy.
“I came from the DP World Tour where people were starting to recognize me as a good player. And then I came over here and I had to start from scratch. Yeah, I had that feeling that no one had any idea who I was. So I had to earn it, and I hope this is a way of doing that,” Reitan said.
