Thomas

Pieters

That same year, Pieters proved his potential by winning the individual 2012 NCAA Division 1 Championship, the national title for college golfers.

Further down the field were two other young golfers destined for the big time, freshmen Justin Thomas (T7) of Alabama and Jordan Spieth (T54) of Texas.

A confident Pieters decided to forgo his senior year at college and turn professional in 2013.

“When I won the nationals and you’re beating the likes of Jordan and Justin… playing in America in college at that time you knew those guys were going to be great,” he told the Fairway To Heaven podcast.

“If you can beat them a couple times I was like, ‘all right, maybe I can do this’.”

On his professional debut at the Open de France, Thomas Pieters made the cut and finished in the top 30 and by the end of the year had earned his European Tour card for 2014.

He gained his first top-10 finish at the Malaysian Open and his best result in his maiden season was runner-up at the Open de Espana, losing a playoff to Miguel Angel Jiménez.

Summer 2015 saw Pieters land his first two professional wins back-to-back.

A three-stroke victory at the Czech Masters in August was followed by topping the leaderboard by one-stroke in September’s KLM Open, the latter netting him $325,000 in prize money.

That second win also propelled Pieters into the top 100 in the official world golf ranking for the first time, shooting him up from 141st to 88th and by the end of the season he held 29th place in the Race to Dubai. 

Thomas Pieters tackled the first event of 2016 head on, taking second place in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship a few days before his 24th birthday, just missing out to Rickie Fowler by one stroke.

In August came one of the proudest moments in his career, but ultimately his biggest disappointment too.

Pieters represented Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and was one of the standout performers with fourth place out of a field of 60, but just outside the medal positions.

“Finishing fourth in Rio was very painful,” he told LIV Golf’s official podcast, Fairway To Heaven.

“That’s one of the few times I’ve cried coming off a golf course.”

Two weeks later he was to win his third title on the European Tour with victory at the 2016 Made in Denmark, shooting a 65 on the Sunday to beat Bradley Dredge by one stroke and claim another $325,000 prize pot. 

One very important person who took note of that success was Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, who selected Pieters as one of his wildcard options.

There were no nerves on display at Hazeltine National as Pieters became the first European rookie to score four points in a Ryder Cup and, despite his team falling to the United States, he had the highest individual points score for any player from both teams.

By the end of the year, he had broken into the top 50 of the official golf world ranking and had booked a place at The Masters.

Playing in The Masters is an ambition for every young golf professional, but Pieters took that dream one step further, finishing tied for fourth on his debut in 2017.

Despite a final round of 68 that left him five-under for the tournament – and earning prize money of $484,000 – Pieters was actually annoyed with himself for stumbling through the third day with a 75.

National glory was to follow in November 2018 as Pieters and partner Thomas Detry lifted the World Cup of Golf for Belgium at Melbourne’s Metropolitan Golf Club.

Another win at the Czech Masters was the highlight of 2019 and his fifth European Tour title was clinched at the 2021 Portugal Masters.

In January 2022 his sixth European Tour title also earned him his biggest haul in terms of prize money as he collected $1.3million for winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. 

Thomas Pieters signed his first LIV Golf contract in February 2023 and joined up with Bubba Watson’s Niblicks GC who were renamed RangeGoats GC that season.

He had to wait until the ninth event of the year in London to gain a first top-10 result but there was a win for RangeGoats in Singapore to celebrate.

Pieters eventually finished 33rd in the season’s individual standings and helped RangeGoats secure second spot in the Team Championship finale in Dallas.

Last season Pieters improved with a couple of top-10 finishes, eventually securing 30th in the players’ standings, but there had been difficult matters to deal with away from the golf course.   

“I hate finishing 30th, I feel like I could finish in the top 10 if I put all my best stuff together,” he told Fairway To Heaven.

“Becoming a single dad two years ago was a very difficult time, going through a break-up and then you have to play golf and compete at the highest level.

“I wasn’t enjoying myself on the golf course, but I’ve slowly found that again.”

When tempers snap, so can the occasional club and fans love to see that sometimes their heroes are human too.

Despite his laid-back personality, Pieters has sacrificed several clubs over the years.

At The Open in 2016 an iron was flung into the bushes in pieces after a wayward approach shot at the 11th hole and at the 2017 Open de France a driver bit the dust on its way back to the bag.

During the 2018 PGA Championship an iron was broken round his shoulders on the fairway of the 4th hole and in the same year a quadruple bogey at the BMW Championship saw a putter snapped over his knee.

A more enjoyable way for Pieters to let off steam is racing old Volkswagens competitively in team Big3 with his brother PieterJan and friend Stef Wynendaele.

“It’s called the European Fun Cup and they are old Volkswagen Beetles but obviously souped up,” he told Fairway To Heaven.  

“It’s an expensive hobby but it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

Pieters included a video of their classic Beetle in action in October 2024 on his Instagram account @thomaspietersgolf which also follows his progress on the LIV tour.  

Pieters is one of the tallest golfers on the pro circuit, standing at 6ft 5in.

This may be considered a disadvantage, but Pieters manages to employ some little countermeasures that in general give him a powerful and elegant swing.

On the tee he sets up with strong fundamentals, a wide stance and a good grip before launching a huge shoulder turn.

His club can very often be quite steep on the backswing, compared to the shaft plane.

To counter, he stalls slightly at the top of the swing to help get the club to shallow out on the descent.

With strong hip rotation, Pieters also pushes hard on his back foot to get the club to straighten through impact with the ball.  

For the 2023 PGA Championship used a Titleist TSR2 driver (10 degrees @ 9.25, C2 SureFit) with a Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Orange 75 TX shaft.

This was accompanied by two TaylorMade woods, a 3-wood SIM Max (15 degrees) and a 7-wood SIM2 Max (21 degrees) both with Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX shafts.  

His irons were from Titleist range again, the 620 CB (3-4) and 620 MB (5-9) with Project X 6.5 shafts.

Wedges stayed on brand with four clubs, the Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (46-10F, 52-08F, 56-10S) and Vokey 2022 Prototype (58-L @60), all with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts.

A TaylorMade Spider GT putter with SuperStroke Pistol GTR grip completed his club collection while the Titleist Pro V1 ball made up the bag.