Kristoffer Reitan

Kristoffer Reitan is the same age as compatriot Viktor Hovland, and was successful with him in the 2014 Toyota Junior World Cup in Japan.

They were teammates again four years later at the Eisenhower Trophy world amateur team championship at Carton House in the Republic of Ireland, Norway finishing joint fifth in a week which saw twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard help Denmark to the title.

That came only a month after Hovland had become US Amateur champion and in the same year that Reitan was the first player from their country to qualify for the US Open.

Once they turned professional Hovland’s rise was meteoric, but it is only now that Reitan plays his first Open after qualifying through his ranking on the DP World Tour.

This follows a stunning spell in which he tied for second in April’s Hainan Classic, won a play-off against Ewen Ferguson and Darius Van Driel at the Soudal Open in May – that after a closing 62 – and on his next start finished joint second again in the Austrian Open, this time after producing a last round 60.

The remarkable stretch took him from 392nd on the world rankings to inside the top 100, and after his fourth place finish at the recent BMW International he moved to fifth in the Tour standings.