LPGA Tour

Norway's Reitan plays it cool in Junior Amateur Round of 32

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:22 p.m. ET

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BLUFFTON, S.C. –– With temperatures reaching the high 90s Thursday at Colleton River Plantation Club, Kristoffer Reitan wanted to keep his number of holes played to a minimum.

Understandable, considering Reitan is from Oslo, Norway, where temperatures are currently about 30 degrees cooler, and had to play five extra holes Thursday morning to win his first-round match against Cheng Jin.

“I was starting to think if I play another match with 23 holes, that would be really exhausting,” Reitan said. “I’m really happy to have ended it on No. 15.

Reitan won Nos. 10-12 to take a 4-up lead on Andy Zhang, a four-time match-play qualifier at the U.S. Junior Amateur, and then halved three straight holes to close out a 4-and-3 victory in the Round of 32.

“It’s more mentally tough in this heat because if you’re playing bad, it’s easier to put blame on something,” Reitan said. “The heat is obviously a thing that you could blame, but if you just stay cool and commit to your shots, you can’t blame the heat.”

Reitan was indeed committed to his shots. He drove it well, scrambled well and made the putts when he needed to, including at Nos. 11 and 12, when he drained birdies in the 15- to 20-foot range.

“With the drives being in the middle of the fairway all the time, that’s really helping,” Reitan said.

Said fellow Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who lost in the Round of 64: “He’s driving the ball pretty good; I think that’s the key on this course. As long as he hits it, he’s going to have a lot of birdie chances.”

Hovland got an up-close look at Reitan on Thursday. After being eliminated from the competition, Hovland decided he’d rather caddie for his friend than spend hours practicing, even if the practice facilities at Colleton River were “mint” compare to those in Norway.

“I have to wait for him anyways because we have the same fight back from Norway,” Hovland said. “But this is better than practicing. … We had fun out there.”

Reitan, who had been pushing his bag up until the Round of 32, said Hovland, ranked 106th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, was a calming presence on the course. After all, the two are close pals and are rooming together this week.

“I didn’t want to ask him if he wanted to caddie for me because I didn’t want to make him feel bad, but he actually asked me,” said Reitan, ranked 237th in the world. “He was there just to confirm that the process of my thinking was right. It helped me to be more confident in the shot that I was hitting.”

Right now, Reitan’s confidence level is high, even in foreign weather conditions.

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