Kristoffer Reitan emerges from jammed leaderboard to win Truist Championship

Kristoffer Reitan won in his 15th PGA Tour start. Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images Share articleKristoffer Reitan had to sweat out whether or not he would be in the Truist Championship field. He won’t have to worry about that for the next two years after the 28-year-old Norwegian claimed his first PGA Tour victory at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. There was a four-way tie at 14 under par late on Sunday, with three of the four playing in the last two groups. The exception was Rickie Fowler, who shot a Sunday 65 but bogeyed the 18th hole to fall to 13 under. Nicolai Højgaard bogeyed the 16th hole to fall off the pace, and Alex Fitzpatrick double-bogeyed No. 17 to drop to 12 under. That left Reitan, who birdied the par-4 14th to get to the logjam at the top of the leaderboard, and then birdied the par-5 15th to give himself some cushion. Three straight comfortable pars got Reitan into the clubhouse at 15 under and with his first tour win in his 15th start. Reitan is the second player from Norway to win a PGA Tour event, joining Viktor Hovland. But Reitan’s path was a bit more complicated than Hovland’s; Reitan had signed a letter of intent to Texas but turned it down to go pro and spent years working his way through the Challenge Tour and then the DP World Tour. He earned his PGA Tour card with his play last season in Europe, including a win at the Soudal Open. And he did enough in his first few months on tour — including a second-place finish with countryman Kris Ventura at the team event Zurich Classic last month — to get into last week’s signature event, the Cadillac Championship. But it took another player’s score to get Reitan into the Truist Championship, thanks to the PGA Tour’s complicated formulas that incentivize the hottest players into the no-cut, big-money events. Reitan was already in next week’s PGA Championship, but has now qualified for the rest of the major championships this year, as well as the handful of remaining signature events. He also takes home $3.6 million with the Truist trophy. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms