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He isn’t the first golfer to retire early and he certainly won’t be the last.
But there is always an element of surprise when a golfer announces they have quit the professional game before the age of 40 – particularly when it seems they have more to give.
There are some players, who just don’t maintain the same “driving force to compete.”
That was the case for Espen Kofstad, the Norwegian who has announced he has walked away from the professional arena at the age of just 37.
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Kofstad, who turned pro in 2011, has played on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour in recent years and represented Norway in Rio when golf returned to the Olympic Games in 2016.
He finished T43 in Rio in what will go down as one of his proudest career achievements. He also won four times on the Challenge Tour but didn’t manage a victory in 127 DP World Tour starts.
Kofstad played a full schedule on the European circuit in 2024 but missed a dozen cuts. After withdrawing from the Open de Espana citing injury, he finished the regular season 191st in the Race to Dubai rankings. Only the top 114 players kept their cards for the 2025 campaign.
“Thank you tournament golf for everything,” Kofstad wrote on Instagram, revealing his retirement. “This feels like the right time to move on and look for something new. Thank you to everyone that has helped me along the way!”
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It had appeared Kofstad might have turned a corner at the Hero Indian Open in March. He shaved 19 shots off his opening 81 to shoot a course-record 62 at the DFL Golf and Country Club in New Dehli.
While that was another example of golf’s absurdity, it was also a course record around a difficult track and propelled him inside the cutline from nowhere. Yet in a career plagued by injuries, this wasn’t the springboard Kofstad might have hoped.
“Enough is enough. I have decided to quit,” Kofstad told Norsk Golf as he planned to step away from touring life. “I still love golf. But I have been thinking about putting competitive golf on the shelf for quite some time.
“I have tried to set myself goals. But I don’t find the same driving force as before. And then I would rather use my skills and experience in other areas.”
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