Nicolas Colsaerts is living proof of what you can achieve when you set your mind to it.
Ever since he exploded onto the golfing scene in 2000 as a fresh-faced 18 year old, becoming the second youngest player to successfully negotiate all three stages of the European Tour Qualifying School, Colsaerts’ talent has not been in doubt.
But talent is nothing without the temperament and application to back it up – a fact which was perhaps lost on a teenager with both talent and money to burn.
For much of his early career, Colsaerts determinedly set about trying to disprove American inventor Thomas Eddison’s theory that “success is ten per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration”, as the house music lover and part-time DJ spent as much time socialising as he did practising.
Having finished 77th on the Money List in 2003, the success perhaps went to Colsaerts’ head and over the ensuing years, the big-hitting Belgian appeared in danger of committing the cardinal sin of frittering away a potentially brilliant career.
The nadir came in 2008, when Colsaerts endured a wretched season on the Challenge Tour, making the cut in only four events and earning just over €6,000 in prize money in the process.
He had hit rock bottom, and the only way was up. Colsaerts knew something had to change, and fast. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, on the advice of his friend’s father he flew thousands of miles to the A-Game International Golf Academy at Brookwater Golf Course in Brisbane, Australia, where he hooked up with swing coach Ken Berndt.
For several weeks, Colsaerts did little else except eat, sleep and hit golf balls. Finally, the penny had dropped, and the results were nothing short of spectacular.
Colsaerts won twice and finished in the top ten on a further eight occasions en route to finishing in third place in the 2009 Challenge Tour Rankings.
After spending too long in the golfing wilderness – he had fallen outside the top 1,000 on the Official World Golf Ranking, but was up to 127th by the end of 2009 – Colsaerts was back where he belonged, in the big time.
In days of yore, Colsaerts might have rested on his laurels and spent the winter months toasting his success with friends back home in his native Brussels.
But the new and improved model was determined to make the most of his second chance, so Colsaerts returned to Brisbane for some more intensive training in preparation for his first European Tour campaign since 2006.
Despite a sluggish start, the practice and dedication paid off as he ended the season in a career-high of 67th in The Race to Dubai, thanks largely to a third place finish at the BMW Italian Open and a further four top ten finishes.
But still Colsaerts was not satisfied, and so after identifying his chipping as a weak link he turned to short game specialist and Sky Sports analyst Mark Roe for what he hoped would be the final piece in the puzzle.
With a vastly improved short game to complement his prodigious length off the tee, a maiden win seemed inevitable and the door duly opened last week at the Volvo China Open, where victory moved him to the heady heights of tenth in The Race to Dubai and 105th on the World Ranking.
Speaking afterwards, an ecstatic Colsaerts – who received a message of congratulations from his compatriot and fellow European Tour champion Philippe Toussaint – put his success down to a new-found maturity, and paid tribute the people who had helped him rediscover his appetite for the game.
He said: “I’ve waited for this moment for such a long time but even through all the hard times, I never lost faith in myself. My career’s been a real rollercoaster, and until recently I’ve probably experienced more downs than ups.
“I’ve made mistakes on and off the course in the past, but now I feel much calmer, happier and more in control of things. My wins on the Challenge Tour definitely helped me, because I knew I could do it so I didn’t get too nervous. It’s just amazing how much my life has turned around over the last two years.
“I have a lot of people to thank for that: Ken Berndt, Mark Roe, my coach Michel Vanmeerbeek, my caddie Brian Nilsson, who turned 41 today, and my parents, who have been so supportive of me. I’m sure they’ll be having a party back home, and I can’t wait to get back there and join them.”
Still only 28 and with his best years ahead of him, it is unlikely to be the last party thrown by the Colsaerts clan.
