Dorthea Forbrigd came mightily close to a maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) victory at last week’s Dutch Ladies Open losing in a playoff to Thailand’s Aunchisa Utama on the first sudden-death hole.
The Norweigan’s best result to date on the circuit, it was a performance made all the more impressive given Forbrigd was sidelined with a wrist injury for the first five events of the season – a strain which still requires taping as she tees up at this week’s Tipsport Czech Ladies Open.
Despite the near miss in the Netherlands, the 29-year-old is full of optimism and confidence heading into the summer tournaments on the LET.
“A lot of people have congratulated me [on last week] and honestly, I’m happy about the week,” Forbrigd said. “It made me feel very grateful and even this week people have come up to me and said great week. I really appreciate it and it’s been awesome. I thought Aunchisa [Utama] played well in the playoff. She made a good birdie and she deserved it. I thought it was cool to be in that spot and all the emotions that came with it. I hope to put myself in that position some more.
“After my birdie on 18, that’s when the emotions came because the crowd went very loud and all my friends were there and congratulating me. Then more of the adrenaline came afterwards and I had to take a couple of minutes to just cool down and then prepare for the playoff. I managed to calm myself down a little bit, but after hitting the tee shot, I could definitely feel my heart. It’s what you want, that’s what you practice for to be in that situation. It was super fun.
“I felt like my game has been good for a while and I feel like I’ve had to put together the pieces. I’m focusing more on getter better. To get a win is what I want, but I want to become a better player and perform better in those situations.“
The result followed a T5 finish in her previous outing at the Jabra Ladies Open de France with Forbrigd catapulting herself into 20th spot on the LET Order of Merit thanks to the superb results. The Norweigan finished 28th in the season-standings in 2025 and is now playing arguably her best golf to date despite the wrist strain.
“It’s weird with the injury it was hard because I’ve never gone that long without practicing golf,” Forbrigd explained. “When I came back, it’s not different now how I’m hitting it. In South Africa, it was about managing the expectations. I had high expectations then. I would play a practice round or a pro-am and make four or five birdies in nine holes, so I thought I could go low and then the tournament would start and I could three-putt. I didn’t handle my own expectations well.
“From Germany on, I said screw the score, you know you can hit good shots so just focus on hitting good shots. With the putts too, if you hit good putts they’re not all going to drop but hopefully, more and more are going to drop. That seems to be working which has been nice. I’m trying to stay in that mindset.
“The wrist is a lot better. It’s still there and I still have to manage it. After this three-week stretch, I’m going to do some days off to rest the entire body for sure. I have learned. You won’t see me do certain things in the gym still, I will be careful, but it’s not bothering me. It happened partly due to the things I had done in the gym which didn’t help. It was overuse, a strain. It took a while and that’s why now when I’ve been playing so much too, it’s taken longer to get back to where I don’t have to tape it and it’s fine if I don’t ice it. After the injury, you’re thinking a lot about the season and I have some goals, so it seemed hard. With the second place, I’m still in a good position which is great.”
As for this week, Forbrigd tees up in the eighth edition of the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open at Royal Beroun Golf Club – a course which has historically produced low scores for the stars of the LET. Despite the temptation of birdies being there for taking, Forbrigd is planning to stay patient when she tees up on Friday in the 54-hole event.
“It’s golf. It’s a birdie course and you have to putt well,” the Norweigan said. “The greens are soft this week and if you’re putting in the afternoon, it’s going to be more bumpy. The greens are quite slopey, so they have to put the pins in relatively flat spots as well. You can hit a good putt and it won’t go in. If I continue hitting it as well as I have been, I will keep giving myself chances and that’s all I really want to do is have good chances, hit good putts and hopefully, they will drive.”
Meanwhile Forbrigd, one of the LET’s most avid travellers, is enjoying her time off the course with Beroun just 30 minutes from Czechia’s capital.
She said: “Me, Kajsa [Arwefjall] and Alessia [Nobilio] went to Prague on Monday and went to lunch and walked around the Old Town. I have some friends from college that are here, so I met them for a dinner on Tuesday. One of them lives here and the other is visiting her. They have a wedding this weekend, so they won’t be out but it was nice to see them.”
Forbrigd gets underway at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open at 13:36 local time on Friday. Follow all the action throughout the tournament on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram, TikTok and X, and Ladies European Tour on YouTube and Facebook – #TipsportCzechLadiesOpen.
