Kjeldsen's Six-Month PGA Tour Champions Wait is Over

Last Saturday marked a consequential day in the life of Soren Kjeldsen. It was the day the pro of 30 years turned 50 years old and became eligible, finally, for the PGA Tour Champions. The Dane earned his PGA Tour Champions card last December by winning the final stage of qualifying by eight. After a mere six-month wait, he gets to begin the new chapter of his career at famed Congressional Country Club in a senior major, the Senior PGA Championship.

“It’s a day that I’ve been waiting on for a very long time. Ever since getting my card in December, I’ve been waiting for that fiftieth birthday, and to start off at this venue is amazing,” Kjeldsen said Tuesday.

“I’ve obviously watched great championships played here, and obviously the course has changed quite a bit, but it’s been great to see this awesome course and to see all the old faces that I know so well again that I know from the past, so I’m trying to take it all in this week.”

A number of his old colleagues have come up to say hello ahead of his debut on the senior circuit.

“Obviously Alex Cejka, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Thomas Bjorn, all these guys that I used to see a lot of and now I haven’t seen much these last few years, so it’s great to catch up with everybody,” Kjeldsen said.

His fellow Dane Bjorn is delighted to once again be competing with him. “It’s great to have him out here. Just brilliant,” Bjorn said.

There’s a lot to look forward to with this next stage of Kjelden’s career. The Aalborg, Denmark native turned pro in 1995, winding down his time competing on the DP World Tour as he admits his game has just not been competitive enough to handle the younger guys out there.

“I want to be competitive again. I think the last few years on the main Tour in Europe, I had my moments, but generally it was tough,” Kjelsen, who missed six of his last seven cuts out there dating to last summer, said. “Guys were hitting it 50, 60 yards past me. I just want to be competitive again. I still love playing. I can’t wait to go practice, go play, and compete.

I’m working really hard. I want to compete here (on PGA Tour Champions).”

With this new opmpetitive stage, Kjelsen has changed his preparation for a competitive round of golf.

“Yes, I think it has. My priorities have changed a bit, too. It’s really important for me to be in good shape physically,” Kjeldsen said. “When I was 25, it was all about beating balls and making as many birdies as possible. But now I’ve got to make sure that my body is OK. I’ve done a lot of traveling for 30 years, and if I don’t go to the gym for two days or three days, I can feel it in my back. I still love to practice a lot, but I think because of my priority with the physical part of it, I definitely hit less balls than I used to.”

This special week will come and go in a flash, but Kjeldsen plans to get the most out of it and enjoy his time back in the ring full time. He’s ecstatic to settle into a career on the PGA Tour Champions, a destination he covets immensely.

“It’s tremendous. When you’re plus 50, you want to be here because it’s the best Tour by far. There are so many great names and so many great champions,” Kjeldsen said. “I think just to be in this environment is great, and I feel like it’s very motivational for me to see all of these faces and friends and try to beat them. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? You wake up in the morning, and you want to do something. You want to get better; that hasn’t changed. So I look forward to that.”

As he stood by the clubhouse at Congressional Country Club and looked back over the property, the amicable Dane caught himself smiling.

“What a place to start. What a tournament, what a venue,” Kjeldsen said. “So I can’t wait to get started.”