British Masters, Thursday morning, second round and Soren Kjeldsen is fist pumping in front of virtually no one. Bar his compatriot Thorbjorn Olesen playing in the group behind.
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Laughed Kjeldsen: "He comes up to me after the round and said, 'Did I see a fist pump at 7.30 in the morning?'"
He did. And then took notes for himself. So when the unheralded Danes teamed up a couple of months later in the $US8 million World Cup of Golf, Olesen knew the go-to celebration for his partner 15 years his senior.
"[And] I fist pumped the second hole of this tournament on Thursday morning," Kjeldsen joked.
And then virtually never stopped. While the Chinese chest bump might have been the signature celebration around the greens at Kingston Heath, the Danish twist was the one which won out in a week where everyone seemed happy not to be carrying the weight of the world on their own shoulders.
"The psychology has been really interesting for me," Kjeldsen said en route to the Scandinavian country's first World Cup crown. "When you play your own game it's different, but when you've got a guy like this on the back nine on Sunday you feel like you want to die for the guy. It's different.
"That's been very interesting to feel and I get the sense why teams get so together when they play well. I've never really experienced that before this week. That team feeling is amazing."
But maybe not as cool as a royal note from Princess Mary, Denmark's last famous export from Australia. Spurred by a sizzling 12-under 60 in fourball play on Friday, you can add a cool $US1.28 million for Kjeldsen and Olesen each to that list.
Olesen's long birdie putt on the 72nd hole pushed them to 20-under and four shots clear of a trio of countries, headed by the US, France and tournament surprise China (all -16).
They had that same buffer over the US heading into the last day – and preserved it.
"America is a huge country and Denmark is a very, very little country and it was great [to beat them] to be honest," Olesen said.
Dethroned champions Australia were much better in fourball play on Sunday, but Adam Scott and Marc Leishman had to be content with a tie for ninth at 11 under.
The Danes started the day slowly – even at one stage having their lead whittled back to just one shot – but the Americans weren't chugging out of second gear either.
Save for Jimmy Walker's near ace on the par-three sixth, birdies were at a premium for the final group in a format made for a bunch of them.
But Denmark – more specifically the enigmatic Olesen, who perfectly complemented the self-anointed "train who keeps turning up on time" in Kjeldsen – got going on the back nine.
And if anyone could see Kjeldsen and Olesen wobbling, it would have been their playing partners. But they were wobbling themselves.
"You're not looking for them to get off the gas, you've got to stay on the gas and keep pressing," US PGA winner Walker said. "We weren't really looking for that.
"A huge opportunity was when we missed those two eagle putts and they made bogey [on the eighth] – that would have been a three-shot swing – and really big. We just didn't quite get it going early on either of the bestball days."
The much-debated World Cup format, trading foursomes and fourball days, did win a seal of approval from Walker's partner Rickie Fowler, who enthused about the prospect of some form of teams-based competition at the Olympic Games. He can think more about it on the way to Tiger Woods' event in the Bahamas next week.
Denmark's Scandinavian rivals Sweden produced the low round of the day, world No.9 Alex Noren and David Lingmerth fleetingly looking like they could do the impossible en route to a 10-under 62. But they had to be content with fifth.
WORLD CUP LEADERBOARD
-20: Denmark
-16: France, China, US
-15: Sweden
-14: Italy, Japan
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-11: Australia
