A week ago Nicolas Colsaerts wasn’t even playing in the Dunhill Links Championship.
Now he comes away from St Andrews with a second place and his playing privileges sorted for next year.
The Belgian produced rounds of 65-65-65-70 and his third round at Kingsbarns was particularly spectacular given he had an eagle at the 3rd, four more birdies and also the rarest of birds at the 16th.
Colsaerts somehow managed to make a two at the par 5 to become just the fourth player to achieve such a feat at the Dunhill.
The club of choice was a 6-iron and the approach shot came in from 223 yards and the result saw the ball use the backslope perfectly, not that he knew what had happened.
ALBATROSS @NicoColsaerts makes an albatross at the 16th at Kingsbarns! #dunhilllinks pic.twitter.com/augYNri4kF
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 5, 2024
“When you play Kingsbarns and you play 16 and you see that ball down the left, that’s obviously where you would like to see the flag, which is not the usual spot actually,” said the 41-year-old.
“That 6-iron just came out perfectly. I was like, I’m going to take a chance and try to fly it in there, and I saw the ball coming back down the backstop, I was like, OK, and I put the two hands in the air. Super special. An albatross is pretty rare, really chuffed, yeah.
“I saw one of you guys with a camera at the back that told me it was in. I would have been quite happy with a tap-in three but of course a cherry on the cake holing a 6-iron for an albatross 2 on a par 5 is pretty cool.”
Colsaerts would finish with a two-under 70 at the Old Course to come up one shot shy of three-time winner Tyrrell Hatton.
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