Nicolai Hojgaard sets his position towards Ryder Cup teammates now LIV Golf players

Nicolai Hojgaard, an European Ryder Cup star, has maintained a positive attitude towards his colleagues who have joined LIV Golf. Despite the controversy surrounding the Saudi-backed league and its impact on the traditional tours, Hojgaard has held no hard feelings against those who have made the switch.

The Dane rising star has not changed his stance on his Ryder Cup teammates who have left for the LIV Golf League. He described the atmosphere among the 12 men who brought the Ryder Cup back to the continent at Marco Simone as amiable, with joking around and a good vibe in the group chat.

Recently, Nicolai Hojgaard spoke to National Club Golfer about his current relationship with Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm, his Ryder Cup teammates who currently play on LIV Golf. This is part of what he had to say:

“I don’t hold anything against him,” Nicolai Hojgaard said about Tyrrell Hatton. He added: “I spent some time with Jon [Rahm] last week, that was pretty cool, I haven’t seen him for a while. And to learn from him around a place he’s won [Augusta National Golf Club] and they say a specialist is very useful for me.

“I could feel it going into the week and going into the back nine, obviously I had some very useful information from playing with Jon. We still have a group chat and it’s a good vibe and there’s joking around a little bit, but nothing’s changed certainly not from my side.”

As the golf landscape continues to evolve with the emergence of LIV Golf, Hojgaard’s future participation in the 2025 Ryder Cup alongside Rahm or Hatton remains uncertain due to potential conflicts with the DP World Tour’s policies. Despite this, Hojgaard remains focused on his career, drawing on his experiences from the Ryder Cup, the Players Championship, and the Masters.

Hojgaard’s finished tied for 16th at the Masters. His performance at Augusta National was his best in six major championship starts. About the topic, the Dane said the following:

“You need to get away from the outcome and the process more like on every shot in a given moment, what situation do you have now, what do I need to do. I feel like it’s so easy in a stretch like that you’re thinking a bit too far ahead.”

“I also learned that in major golf, sometimes pars are really good and you’ve got to be really disciplined on every hole. I know there are certain par 5s you want to make birdies at, but if you make pars around Augusta, you’ve done a really good job especially how you see that tournament turns out.”

LIV Golf interest in Nicolai Hojgaard

Nicolai Hojgaard, now 23, has been rumored to be among the interests of LIV Golf for new recruitments almost since the inception of the Greg Norman-led league. The young Dane has been interviewed about 2022, and he had this to said then (via Golf.dk):

“I would probably say no [to an eventual offer from LIV Golf] But again, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. We are all waiting to see what comes out of it, so I can understand for many that it is attractive when there are such large amounts of money and there are so few players.”

“But I don’t think it’s all about money. There is prestige in some competitions and you want to win the same trophies as some of the greatest players in history. That is my position on this.”

Nicolai Hojgaard has reportedly kept his word so far. A few weeks ago, Ryder Cup team co-captain Edoardo Molinari said Hojgaard turned down a “good offer” from LIV Golf:

“A few weeks ago I was speaking to Nicolai Hojgaard,” Molinari said to Bunkered, “who had a good offer [from LIV Golf] but turned it down because he knows that if he continues to play well, he will still earn a lot of money but will be freer to make certain decisions and will be sure of playing the majors.”

In January 2024, The Telegraph reported that Nicolai Hojgaard was among LIV Golf’s targets as it sought to recruit players for the new Legion XIII team captained by Jon Rahm. The positions were eventually filled by Tyrrell Hatton, Kieran Vincent and Caleb Surrat.