The narrative around Thomas Pieters at the moment is that he’s back to his best – a best that saw him win three times in 13 months from mid-2015 and culminated in him securing a team-best four points in the European Ryder Cup effort at Hazeltine in autumn 2016. But that assessment might actually be doing a disservice to the sweet-striking Belgian. He’s even better now than he was then – on and off the course.
Pieters had a solid 2017 without winning, but he suffered something of a lull in his career from 2018 and even into last year. It was by no means a full collapse – many players would love to hover between 60 and 120 in the world rankings. But it wasn’t the upward trajectory the golfing world expected from Europe’s next big thing.
Last summer, there were signs of a return to the form that got him into that Ryder
