The Danish golf tournament features local talent including brothers Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard, amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard, leader going into the final round.
In the end, however, it was the French who took the top spot on the leaderboard, with Frederic LaCroix claiming his first DP World Tour title.
LaCroix was four shots behind at the start of the day, while Bjerregaard, seeking his first victory on tour in nearly six years, started with confidence, making birdie on the par-5 first hole.
However, if that convinced the home crowd that one of the 23 Danish players would lift the trophy, Bjerregard's prospects soon began to look shaky as he suffered consecutive bogeys on the second and third holes.
He birdied the fifth and sixth holes before bogeying them and hitting his tee shot into a tree on the eighth, forcing him to give up a shot and then making his task even harder with a double bogey after hitting a bunker near the green.
Overnight leader Lucas Bjerregard was unable to maintain momentum in the final
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As the tournament entered the back nine, three French players – Lacroix, last week's D+D Royal Czech Masters champion David Ravetto and Romain Langasque – occupied the top three spots on the leaderboard, and Lacroix seized his opportunity.
Although Bjerregard lost with a two-over 73, Lacroix finished eight shots better than Bjerregard. Like Bjerregard, he birdied the first round, but unlike the Dane, he was consistent throughout.
Romain Langasquez is one of four French stars to make the top five of the ranking
(Image source: Getty Images)
He then birdied the fifth, seventh, 10th, 12th and 15th holes, leading by four strokes over Langasquez and Bjerregard going into the final hole, with Laviteau and another Frenchman, Adrien Sadier, in fourth and fifth respectively.
LaCroix had gone his round bogey-free so a disaster on the final hole was unlikely to offer a glimmer of hope to his two closest challengers, and sure enough, he made par on the 18th to maintain the lead with Bjerregaard and Langasque still in the field.
Frederic Lacroix wins his first Tour title and becomes the first Frenchman to win the Danish Golf Championship 🏆 #DanishGolf pic.twitter.com/3mcmV0aJVLAugust 25, 2024
After Lacroix secured victory, the only question left was how much he could win, with the remaining two finishing at par to hand Lacroix the title by four strokes and his first professional title since the 2019 Alpine Tour Saint-Malo Open Hybrid.