Nicolai Hojgaard reacts to DP World Tour Championship victory after missing out last week: “I can’t believe it happened”

Nicolai Hojgaard's sensational game of golf at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai earned him his third title victory. He defeated Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, and Matt Wallace to win the DP World Tour Championship by two strokes.

The 22-year-old Danish professional golfer spoke in a post-round press conference and expressed his feelings about winning his third European Tour title. He also discussed losing the Nedbank Golf Challenge to Max Homa last week by four strokes.

Nicolai Hojgaard told Sky Sports:

"It means a lot. It's the sweetest one. Uh, been put in the last couple of years has been. It's been a really good year. If I look for, look back on it and I felt like the only thing. Anything I needed or was missing a win and to get it this week in this fierce field, unbelievable! I mean, I can't believe it's just happened."

Nicolai Hojgaard said that he had a really good season on the European Tour. But the only thing that was missing from his statistics was a victory and he registered it at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

He then spoke about the final par putt on the 18th hole in the final round of the tournament. He shared that after hitting that shot, he was quite in the dilemma of losing it because others were playing at that time.

"Having that putt on 18 to close it out and it slips by, I felt like it was quite a tough moment for me actually. I was like, 'Did it just slip away? Do we have to go in a play-off?' But we regrouped and took it a bit easy," Hojgaard said.

Nicolai Hojgaard won a prize money paycheck of €2,764,461 (around $3,000,000) for winning the DP World Tour Championship. He also earned 2,000 points to jump to second spot in the season rankings of the European Tour.

How has Nicolai Hojgaard performed at DP World Tour in 2023 season?

The 22-year-old Danish golfer had 17 tournaments on the DP World Tour in 2023. He missed the cut only at the Made in HimmerLand. He recorded nine top-10 finishes this season, which included six top-5 finishes.

Below are Hojgaard's leaderboard standings across all the events he played on the DP World Tour in 2023:

DP World Tour Championship - 1
Nedbank Golf Challenge - 2
BMW PGA Championship - T64
Omega European Masters - T5
D+D Real Czech Masters - 3
The 151st OPEN - T23
Genesis Scottish Open - T6
Made in HimmerLand - Missed the Cut
US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP - T50
DS Automobiles Italian Open - T5
Hero Indian Open - T32
Thailand Classic - T5
Ras Al Khaimah Championship - T13
Hero Dubai Desert Classic - T38
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship - T10
ISPS HANDA Australian Open - T10
Fortinet Australian PGA Championship - T57.

Nicolai Hojgaard earned a total of €4,410,436.50 (around $4,815,094) in the 2023 season on the DP World Tour.