After a long travel stretch from Mississippi to Madrid to Dubai, Thorbjørn Olesen arrived in Utah tired and with low expectations — but found his rhythm just in time. The Dane fired a sharp opening round at the Bank of Utah Championship, crediting recovery work and patience off the tee. Hear how Olesen plans to stay in the U.S., fight for a top-100 finish, and turn solid starts into Sunday success.
Good. Very good. Hey, uh good start to your tournament week. Can you kind of summarize how it went? Yeah, and it was a it was a nice surprise. Uh I haven’t felt that good with my game the last few the holes. I felt like uh the body and and the swing was uh was a lot better than it has been uh the last couple of days. And yeah, I felt like I hit um I hit a lot of good iron shots um and rolled some nice putts. especially on the last nine holes. I kind of heard you talking with Todd there about your schedule. Where did you come from and what’s your schedule like? Yeah, I mean I’ve been a little bit all over. I played Mississippi, then I went to Madrid, back to Dubai where I live and then come here. So, I think that played in a little bit also to not the the best practice the last few days. I was a little bit tired. Um but yeah, um I felt felt a lot better today and obviously really pleased with that round. Why Why do you think you felt better? maybe just in some way not having expectations or Yeah, I would say my expectations were pretty low this morning. Um, but uh yeah, I did some did a lot of recovery work uh the last few days and just try to get the body ready for today. Okay. And will you try and play out the string here in the States or will you go back and No, no, I’ll I’ll stay out I’ll stay out here. Yeah. For Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um, thinking considering your I was taking a look at your your season and it’s been kind of an on paper looks like an up and down season. Uh, miscut, make a cut, miscut, make a cut. Can you talk a little bit about your your season and and how that rhythm has been? Maybe hard to get momentum rolling. Um, I feel like there’s been actually quite a lot of good stuff. I don’t think I missed that many cuts over here. Um but uh you know I haven’t quite finished it off on Sundays. I feel like I’ve been in some you know some pretty good positions on on Friday and Saturday and um you know just sort of had nine bad holes. Um and that’s that’s that’s costing me. Um so you know if you know it only takes a couple of good Sundays and then it would have been a good season you know. So, um, that’s how I look at it. And there’s still quite a few tournaments left that, um, there’s some some good opportunities this time of the season. It’s obviously important. Some of the ranking, some of the numbers games are important as far as finishing in that top 60 or finishing in that top 100. And how much are are you paying attention to some of those your position in in those couple of rankings specifically? Yeah, I mean I’m I’m I’m I’m a good bit out of the top 100 and obviously I want to I want to get in that top 100. Um it’s uh it’s going to take quite a lot of points to get there. Um but yeah, there’s still four four tournaments left. Um so, you know, every I see this every week is a is an opportunity. Um I feel like I have the stuff to win out here. um haven’t been able to do it, but I feel like if um if I can pull it off one of the Sundays, I have a I have a good chance. And after a round like today, knowing for the next three rounds, any big takeaways from for this golf course and for your strategy the next couple of days? Uh no, I feel like it’s pretty set what you hit from the TE boxes and um I feel like obviously the fairways are pretty generous, but if you get off the fairway, you’re in you’re in big trouble. So, um, it does take some discipline. There’s a couple of greens out there that where you need to to to be on the right side as well. So, um, it definitely takes a bit of discipline.
