2025 Season Recap

As a team, we entered this year with limited experience, limited financial resources, and a great deal of uncertainty about what this new situation would bring. Although we have always had strong belief in Bård as a player, it is never easy to predict how things will work when transitioning from a structured college environment to traveling the world independently under intense pressure week after week.

Already in his very first tournament in South Africa, Bård showed remarkable composure. He finished at -12 and secured a strong 5th place, something no one could reasonably expect from a newcomer in their first professional season. Despite Bård having a relatively “high category” (which means fewer playing opportunities) on the HotelPlanner Tour, he has repeatedly delivered solid performances in the tournaments he has been able to enter.

In every tournament, a cut is made after the first two rounds, where only the top players continue to the weekend. After 13 tournaments, roughly halfway through the season, Bård had made every single cut except one. This is extremely impressive and highly unusual. Once again, it highlights a solid and reliable playing style that has allowed him to contend almost every weekend. After the fourth-to-last tournament in Italy at the end of September, a major cut was made: only the top 70 players advanced to China. Once again, Bård made the cut. After China, only the top 45 qualified for the prestigious final in Mallorca, and once again, Bård was among them. The level in these final tournaments is incredibly high, as only the very best players are allowed to compete, and despite this, Bård was right at the top, fighting for victory. Looking back at the season, we are extremely pleased with Bård’s performances, and from a playing perspective, there are only minor details to refine ahead of next season.

From a logistical standpoint, however, we unfortunately see the need to make changes. We did not anticipate how much of a disadvantage it would be to have our base on the west coast of Norway. The baggage issues began when we started using Bergen (Flesland) as our main departure airport. After the tournament in Munich, where we missed our second cut of the season, Bård’s clubs never arrived back in Bergen. Neither Widerøe nor Flesland could tell us where they were. As a result, we had to compete in subsequent tournaments using new clubs. A professional golfer’s clubs are like a musician’s instrument, they must be tuned and familiar for the swing and feel to be right. Switching to new clubs in the middle of a season can have major consequences for performance. A huge thank you to the team at Ping for stepping in and providing backup clubs. Fortunately, after two weeks, Bård got his original clubs back. This time, we placed an AirTag in the bag, and thankfully so. Before the three most important tournaments of the season finale, the clubs once again disappeared at Flesland, what we now call “the Bermuda Triangle of baggage.” This caused us to miss practice rounds in China, and if it hadn’t been for someone from the team traveling to Bergen and physically locating the clubs using the AirTag, we would never have been able to compete in China. When we contacted Flesland and Widerøe, who were responsible for the baggage, we were met with late or no responses at all, and we felt our case was not taken seriously whatsoever.

At the highest level of golf, the margins are incredibly small. Not having your clubs for several weeks and having to adapt to a new swing is absolutely fatal when season results are tallied. These are just two of several incidents we’ve had to deal with when flying from Flesland, and as a result, we have decided that next season we will exclusively travel from Haugesund via Oslo or Stavanger instead. When we look back at the tournaments where we missed the cut, they were either events where we had to play with the wrong clubs or tournaments where the clubs arrived so late that proper preparation was severely compromised.

That said, despite the challenges we’ve faced throughout the season, Bård has delivered world-class golf time and time again. This has meant that even though we did not expect significant prize money, we have been able to cover a much larger portion of our budget through performance alone. Of course, a large part goes to taxes, but when expenses are close to one million NOK, every contribution helps. We would also like to extend a big thank you to everyone who follows Bård’s journey on social media, and especially to those who supported us through the crowdfunding campaign. We raised nearly 50,000 NOK, an amount that may sound modest, but which represents a meaningful share of our expenses. Combined, all of this means we are “only” 400k nok from being self-financed for 2025, giving us the opportunity to continue pushing forward next year.

Throughout the season, we achieved several strong results, including a a 5th place in south Africa, a 10th place in Spain, a 3rd place in Switzerland (just one stroke from victory), and not least an 8th place finish in the season-ending final in Mallorca. Finishing inside the top ten in the final is extremely impressive, not only does it show that Bård can perform when the pressure is highest, but also when the competition is toughest. We finished just four strokes away from securing a DP World Tour card for next year, something we could only have dreamed of in our first season as professionals. Ultimately, we finished 33rd overall in the Road to Mallorca rankings, securing a very strong category for next year’s HotelPlanner Tour season. Beyond the results, it has been incredibly exciting to be part of a journey where we have repeatedly been in contention at the very top. With more reliable airlines and a route around the Bermuda Triangle of baggage, we have every opportunity to secure a DP World Tour card in 2026.

The road ahead for Bård now includes starting a new season in the end of January. As a team we are incredibly proud that Bård, a guy from a small town in western Norway, is competing among the world’s best in one of the most demanding sports there is. I also hope people understand how big this truly is, and that they will join us in cheering Bård on.

Kind regards,

Sara Hatteland

Manager

Team Bård