When the time comes for Nicolas Colsaerts to hole his final putt on the DP World Tour later this season, he will do it with feelings of peace, gratitude, pride and on his own terms after a career that has seen him realise his dreams and become a Ryder Cup hero.
From his first appearance as a 15-year-old amateur, to his debut season as an 18-year-old with prodigious power through to being a Tour winner, a Miracle at Medinah hero and a Ryder Cup Vice Captain, the man known as the Dude has always done it his own way.
This week he will make his 500th DP World Tour appearance at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as part of a scheduling plan that has been two years in the making, although it may not have been possible without his runner-up finish at St Andrews last season.
He was ready to hang up the clubs 12 months ago until he found the spark in a country where he loves playing golf and, while that spark may not have returned in 2025, he now prepares to exit the stage with no regrets.
“I'm pretty at peace,” he said. “I'm pretty at peace because it's something that I've been thinking about for a few years. It's not a decision that I took overnight.
“When you play on Tour for 25 years and you have the chance to celebrate a milestone like this at the Home of Golf, I think anyone would feel quite grateful.
“I've been looking at this for a couple of years now and when I was looking at the numbers and everything, I realised that it was going to be a possibility, which I'm extremely, extremely grateful for.
“25 years is a long time. Yes, I'll be the first one to admit it, I could have done a lot better. I could have probably won about ten or 15 times on Tour. I probably had what was required. But at the same time, you can trust me, I had a lot of fun in the last 25 years as well. So I look back with not as much regret as a lot of people might think.”
When Colsaerts came through in the early 2000s, he was known largely for his incredible distance off the tee as he fought to establish himself on Tour.
Success may not have come instantly but Colsaerts had a front-row seat for a remarkable time in European golf, where the Big Five were in the twilight of their careers but a new generation was winning Ryder Cups and thrilling fans.
“I've looked back at mostly, how I was in 2003, how I was in 2006, how I was in 2010 and then 2012 at the Ryder Cup and stuff like that,” he said.
“And even when I came back from the Ryder Cup in 2012, and I think like 2015, 16, that's ten years ago.
“When I got here, I never thought that I was going to go through these generations. I've seen, like, Olazábal and Ballesteros were still playing. Darren Clarke and all these guys were, like, massive studs when I got here.
“And now you are one of those guys. I never thought that I was going to be looked at the same way that I looked at those guys when I came into it, that's what I'm trying to say.
“It makes you pretty proud, of course. When you embark into this and you get your card the first time, you have no idea what you get yourself into.
“You don't know how long it's going to last. You don't know that you're going to be one of 48 that gets to 500. You don't know that you're going to be one of 47 that's going to win a Ryder Cup away. You don't know that you're going to be Ryder Cup player number 147. You don't know if it's going to be your last party, you don't know. Anything can happen.
“And to be able to have been out here for so long, I'm amazed, I'm proud, it's just a mix of so many different emotions.”
After making that teenage debut at the 1998 TNT Dutch Open, Colsaerts came through the Qualifying School and turned professional in 2000.
His first nine years on Tour saw him split time between the DP World and HotelPlanner Tours as he secured just two DP World Tour top tens, but those years did not pass by without their memorable moments.
“I remember playing with Monty was a thing,” he said. “Also, mid-2000s, I played a Saturday with Faldo at Wentworth, which is an absolute nightmare because he had, rightfully so, a standing ovation on every green. But I was like, wow, like this is just absolutely sensational.”
2010 proved to be a turning point as Colsaerts had five top fives and finished in the top 100 on the Race to Dubai, a position he would retain for 11 consecutive seasons.
The following year brought a maiden win in China and in 2012 he claimed the biggest win of his career at the Volvo World Match Play.
With victory in Spain, he became the first Belgian to have multiple wins on the DP World Tour and later that year, he was handed a Captain’s Pick to become the first Belgian to play in the Ryder Cup.
He was the only rookie on the team but played four matches and contributed a vital four-balls point alongside Lee Westwood against Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker on day one before Europe came from 10-4 down to complete the Miracle at Medinah.
For all his individual achievements, Colsaerts, like many of his team-mates, may be best remembered for being part of that week.
“The thing that stands out, still going to ride the wave from last week, is the Ryder Cup," he said. "I was very lucky to be part of an incredible edition that will still be talked about in the next generations. Played a part in it.
“I was the first from my country to play in it, and you know, probably, arguably, have taken down one of the best golfers, if not the best golfer that's ever lived, on my own.
“So I think when I look back, there's still a lot of things to be incredibly proud of.
“The Ryder Cup, we saw this last week, and you can hear it from the mouths of the guys, there's nothing like it. They are the best weeks of your life. It's so incredible to be a part of it, to feel those emotions and to be able to represent the whole continent the way we do is something that the majority of us are incredibly proud of.
"I still struggle to find the right words to actually describe what it's like to feature in an event like that. Every time I think about Ryder Cup, it transports me back to 2012 even just now, walking in now, as a guy that showed up with a Medinah flag. We're 13 years after, just proof that it was an edition that really marked me.”
Golf may not get more serious than the Ryder Cup but the following year, while defending his match play title, Colsaerts was part of one of the more bizarre rulings you will ever see.
On the tenth during his match against Graeme McDowell, Colsaert’s tee shot found its way into the hazard but his nearest drop was into a toilet with a one-stroke penalty.
He was then given relief and incredibly made his par.
“I think if you ask (referee) Mark Litton, it's also the craziest ruling he's ever had,” said Colsaerts. “We did a piece a couple of years ago. It's still extremely funny to him.”
He added: “I played on my own at the Scottish Open on a Sunday in an hour and 47 minutes or an hour and 50 minutes and did not run.
“I took a tumble in the bunker at Royal Melbourne at a Heineken Classic one year. But I was trying to read my putts and took a couple of steps back and just fell into this bunker, face flat into the sand. Listen, you're talking about 25 years, and it's very difficult to really pick moments like this.”
An emotional third win at the FedEx Open de France would come in 2019 before, in 2022, Colsaerts revealed he feared for his life after being diagnosed with a rare kidney disease, after which he struggled with "toxic" self-criticism.
He made a full recovery and went on to serve as a Ryder Cup Vice Captain in Rome in 2023, famously leading the thunderclaps on the first tee as Europe reclaimed the cup.
It is all a long way from his start in Belgium, the country for which he ended a 37-year wait for a second DP World Tour winner in 2011, following Philippe Toussaint’s lone victory in 1974.
Since then, Thomas Pieters has won six DP World Tour titles and played in a Ryder Cup, with Thomas Detry becoming the first Belgian to win on the PGA TOUR earlier this year.
“Being from Belgium and breaking through the international scene and making the Ryder Cup, I think I helped the explosion of golf a little bit in Belgium,” he said.
“Not sure if I paved the way for those that came after me but I contributed to their mindset, this guy from the same country that I'm from has done it and there's no reason that I can't.
“For a small country to have two Belgian players in the Ryder Cup in a stretch of four or six years is absolutely incredible. When you compare to our neighbours, I think we are not as unknown as we used to be, which makes me incredibly proud.”
Colsaerts admits he has few expectations this week and revealed if his performance inside the ropes is not his best, it will not put a dampener on the occasion.
“It is a success already,” he said. “I'm celebrating 500 here. I'm extremely lucky to have this here at St Andrews, an event where I've played well, where I have a little bit of a relationship with Johann Rupert that puts this incredible thing together.
“I have my wife this week here with one of my two sons that is crazy about golf. So there's a lot to celebrate.”
This may not be Colsaerts’ final DP World Tour event but when he walks over the Swilcan Bridge for the final time as a professional, it will feel like a fitting finale for a man who has dedicated the last 25 years of his life to our game.
