By Mathieu Wood
Like so many of the latest generation of young golfing talent, Adrien Dumont de Chassart is fearless and holds big ambitions.
Some might call it being never satisfied, others may argue it is just an inherent drive that sets the best from the rest.
Quietly spoken, the Belgian has his sights set to compete at the very top of the game, always with an eye on the next goal. This summer, he is set to realise one such objective – representing his country at the Olympic Games.
It will be a big milestone in the fledgling career of this talented US-based 24-year-old.
“It’s the Olympics, there’s nothing really that can compare to what it is,” he says during an off week from his residence in Jacksonville, Florida.
“What is great about the Olympics, especially for a sport like golf, is that anything can happen.
“If I can manage to be in prime form at that time for four days and play very consistent golf, I feel like a medal is possible which is probably not possible if you are doing a 100m run and you are at the bottom of the field. There is no way that you are going to run a 9.6 or 9.7, right?
“That is what is really fun about golf. At any given week, it can be your week.
“I am not going to play to finish top 20. I’m playing to try and get a medal for Belgium.”
To some, this may seem an ambitious ask. After all, it is only a little over a year to the day since De Chassart turned professional.
But such was the immediate impact he made in the paid ranks, who could possibly question his belief.
After finishing third in the 2023 PGA TOUR University ranking – behind a certain Ludvig Åberg and NCAA champion Fred Biondi – De Chassart won on his professional debut on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The very next week he lost in a play-off, and in his subsequent four starts he finished in the top ten.
Within three months of life as a professional, after studying at the University of Illinois, he had earned himself a prized PGA TOUR card.
And with it, expectations grew. With hindsight, that was perhaps not ideal but inevitable. During his five years at college, being in contention for titles was nothing new so why wouldn’t he then expect that of himself on the big stages of the PGA TOUR?
“Being in contention to win is what is so fun about golf,” he says. It is a sport where it is so hard to win. Just to have that feeling is very addictive.
“But on the PGA TOUR, it is obviously harder to have top tens and be in contention all the time.
“I have found it harder to keep that drive and fight all the way when you know you are not fighting for a win and instead are 50th or you are trying to play as well as you can to finish 35th or 25th.
“It is a challenge I am still having to figure out. Because it is important to retain your motivation even when you are not in contention.”
As he so rightly alludes to, he is now playing at a different level.
But, while results have been harder to come by this year in his rookie campaign on the PGA TOUR, with his best a tie for sixth at the Puerto Rico Open, there is no doubting his talent.
Last summer, following his remarkable start to life as a professional, he broadened his horizons by playing in back-to-back events on the DP World Tour in the Czech Republic and Switzerland and last month played on home soil at the Soudal Open.
But back to the here and now. Gaining in Major experience is something you have to believe will be invaluable in his ongoing development. His only start to date at one of golf’s four elite events came at the U.S. Open in 2022, while still an amateur.
But an Olympics is as major an event you could possibly wish to play at. He will do so alongside countryman Thomas Detry, who holds full status on both the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.
Detry, and Thomas Pieters for that matter, also both studied at the University of Illinois. This summer in France, De Chassart will line up alongside Detry in the Belgian colours.
It will be exciting to pick his brains about the Olympics as he has played in one already in Tokyo - Adrien Dumont de Chassart on Thomas Detry
“I don't really know what it is about Belgium, but I feel like we've done a good job over the years to get some top players to get onto the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour,” he reflects.
“It’s nice to have someone else from Belgium [on the PGA TOUR] who I can talk to and share some things.
“It will be exciting to pick his brains about the Olympics as he has played in one already in Tokyo.”
When asked who his biggest inspiration was when he grew up, De Chassart refers to DP World Tour stalwart and Ryder Cup winner Nicolas Colsaerts and offers an intriguing insight to why such a small country has managed to produce players of immense talent.
“The golf courses that we have in Belgium, compared to the States, are a little different. We are used to grind and practice in not the best conditions because the weather in Belgium doesn’t really allow it.
“When you do get to the age of 18 and you go to college or somewhere else to play, you are just so excited to practice in those nice conditions. We know that at any time when it is not as nice, we’re used to it and are better prepared than others.”
And while he is yet to play at this year’s Olympics host venue as a professional, De Chassart knows the 2018 Ryder Cup course well enough having competed there as a teenager and more recently in an international amateur competition.
“It’s a really good track,” he says. It’s a real good challenge. Every part of your game has to be on point which is good for a course that is hosting the Olympics. You don’t want something that is too easy.”
Here is a man up for the challenges ahead, none more so than the upcoming Games, as he continues to live out his dream.
