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Thomas Pieters

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Thomas Pieters
Pieters after winning the 2015 KLM Open
Personal information
Full nameThomas Pieters
Born (1992-01-27) 27 January 1992 (age 32)[1]
Geel, Belgium[2]
Height1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)[1]
Weight85 kg (187 lb; 13.4 st)[1]
Sporting nationality Belgium
ResidenceAntwerp, Belgium
Career
CollegeUniversity of Illinois
Turned professional2013
Current tour(s)LIV Golf
Former tour(s)PGA Tour
European Tour
Professional wins7
Highest ranking23 (6 August 2017)[3]
(as of 17 November 2024)
Number of wins by tour
European Tour6
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT4: 2017
PGA ChampionshipT6: 2018
U.S. OpenT23: 2020
The Open ChampionshipT28: 2018, 2022

Thomas Pieters (born 27 January 1992) is a Belgian professional golfer who currently plays on the European Tour and LIV Golf.[4]

Early life

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Pieters was born in Geel, Belgium in 1992.[1] He started playing golf at the age of five, learning the game at the Witbos Golf Club in Noorderwijk, Belgium.[5]

Amateur career

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In 2010, he attended the University of Illinois for which he won the individual 2011 Jack Nicklaus Invitational and the individual 2012 NCAA Division I Championship in his second year; the next year, he finished second with his team at the 2013 NCAA Division I Championship and won the individual 2013 Big Ten Conference Championship.[6]

Professional career

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In summer 2013, Pieters decided to forgo his senior year at the University of Illinois and turn professional. He made his debut on the European Tour in July at the Alstom Open de France, where he finished 29th; at the end of the year, he battled through all three stages of the European Tour Qualifying School taking the 20th card at the Final Stage, and qualified to play on the European Tour.

His best result in his first year was as runner-up in the 2014 Open de España, leading after the second and third rounds, finishing 6th at the Russian Open Golf Championship and 8th at the 2014 Malaysian Open and at the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Championship. He finished the year ranked #243 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), having ended the previous year at #1122.[7]

In 2015, he started with a 4th-place finish at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship which took him to #156 on the OWGR. In August and September, he won the D+D Real Czech Masters and the KLM Open in consecutive tournaments played and moved into the top 100 in the OWGR. The two wins and five top-10 placements of the season gave him a final 29th place in the Race to Dubai.

Pieters started 2016 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, where he finished 2nd. In August, he represented Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing in 4th place. In the same month, he obtained a second place at the 2016 D+D Real Czech Masters and won the 2016 Made in Denmark. He was chosen by Darren Clarke as a captain's pick for the 2016 Ryder Cup.

Pieters' opened the 2017 season with a tie for 2nd at the Genesis Open in February and followed that up with a top-5 finish at the WGC-Mexico Championship. Those finishes moved Pieters to 29th in the Official World Golf Ranking and qualified him for his first Masters Tournament where his finished 4th. He capped a successful summer with his second top-5 finish at a WGC event when he finished 4th at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. That finish moved him into the top-25 of the OWGR. In September 2017, the European Tour announced that it would be returning to Belgium for the first time in 18 years with Pieters hosting the Belgian Knockout – a unique strokeplay and matchplay format – in May 2018.[8]

In November 2018, Pieters won the 2018 World Cup of Golf with partner Thomas Detry, representing Belgium, at Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia.[9]

In August 2019, Pieters shot a 3-under 69 to become the first golfer to win the D+D Real Czech Masters for the second time, beating Adri Arnaus by one stroke.[10]

Pieters claimed his fifth European Tour victory in November 2021 at the Portugal Masters.[11] Two months later, Pieters won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship for his sixth European Tour win and first Rolex Series victory.[12]

In February 2023, it was confirmed that Pieters had joined LIV Golf.[13]

Amateur wins

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Professional wins (7)

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European Tour wins (6)

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Legend
Rolex Series (1)
Other European Tour (5)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner(s)-up
1 30 Aug 2015 D+D Real Czech Masters −20 (66-68-65-69=268) 3 strokes Sweden Pelle Edberg
2 13 Sep 2015 KLM Open −19 (68-66-62-65=261) 1 stroke Spain Eduardo de la Riva, England Lee Slattery
3 28 Aug 2016 Made in Denmark −17 (62-71-69-65=267) 1 stroke Wales Bradley Dredge
4 18 Aug 2019 D+D Real Czech Masters (2) −19 (67-67-66-69=269) 1 stroke Spain Adri Arnaus
5 7 Nov 2021 Portugal Masters −19 (68-64-65-68=265) 2 strokes Denmark Lucas Bjerregaard, Denmark Nicolai Højgaard,
France Matthieu Pavon
6 23 Jan 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship −10 (65-74-67-72=278) 1 stroke Spain Rafa Cabrera-Bello, India Shubhankar Sharma

European Tour playoff record (0–2)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2014 Open de España Australia Richard Green, Spain Miguel Ángel Jiménez Jiménez won with par on first extra hole
2 2022 BMW International Open China Li Haotong Lost to birdie on first extra hole

Other wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 25 Nov 2018 ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf
(with Belgium Thomas Detry) 		−23 (63-71-63-68=265) 3 strokes  Australia − Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith,
 Mexico − Abraham Ancer and Roberto Díaz

Results in major championships

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Results not in chronological order in 2020.

Tournament 2016 2017 2018
Masters Tournament T4 CUT
U.S. Open CUT
The Open Championship T30 T44 T28
PGA Championship 86 CUT T6
Tournament 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Masters Tournament CUT T48
PGA Championship T23 CUT T71 T40
U.S. Open CUT T23 T27 CUT
The Open Championship T67 NT T28 T71
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

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Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 1 1 1 4 2
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 2 7 5
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 2
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 6
Totals 0 0 0 1 2 4 22 15
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 5 (2022 PGA – 2023 PGA)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results in The Players Championship

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Tournament 2022
The Players Championship CUT

CUT = missed the halfway cut

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Championship T5 T37
Match Play T28 T30 T52 NT1 T26
Invitational 4
Champions T23 T14 T71 T18 NT1 NT1 NT1

1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

  Top 10
  Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.

Team appearances

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Amateur

Professional

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Thomas Pieters: biography". European Tour. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  2. ^ golfvlaanderen.be
  3. ^ "Week 31 2017 Ending 6 Aug 2017" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Thomas Pieters". LIV Golf. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  5. ^ "About — Thomas Pieters". www.thomaspieters.com. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Thomas Pieters". FightingIllini.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  7. ^ "Thomas Pieters". Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  8. ^ Inglis, Martin (25 September 2017). "Thomas Pieters to host innovative European Tour event". bunkered.
  9. ^ "Belgium claim World Cup glory in Melbourne". European Tour. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  10. ^ "Pieters (69) becomes first Czech Masters repeat champion". Golf Channel. 18 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Thomas Pieters wins Portugal Masters after Matthieu Pavon slips up in pursuit of European Tour title". Sporting Life. 7 November 2021.
  12. ^ Murray, Ewan (23 January 2022). "Thomas Pieters earns biggest career victory at Abu Dhabi Championship". The Guardian.
  13. ^ "Thomas Pieters joins LIV Golf series for 2023 season". BBC Sport. 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
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