NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA — Palm Beach County is a long way from Norway, or Switzerland, or any other ski-loving European country.
But Palm Beach County — Palm Beach Gardens specifically — is where rising PGA Tour player Kristoffer Reitan decided to settle. He wanted to be close to fellow Norwegians Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura, and a full roster of other PGA Tour professionals, who make the area a golfers paradise, after finishing eighth in the Race to Dubai rankings last season and earning PGA Tour status for the 2026 season.
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Since skiing never was his thing, Reitan, who was born in Oslo, knew he had to change his environment if he wanted to advance in his golf career.
“I was living in Switzerland, which isn’t exactly ideal for golf,” said Reitan, who moved to South Florida Jan. 3. “So, I was looking to come over here and practice on amazing golf courses (in) great conditions.”
The move paid off — although money is not something Reitan’s family ever lacked (more on that later) — and Reitan has become one of those-out-of-nowhere feelgood stories that can help energize a PGA Tour that can become stale.
Rory McIlroy calls Reitan’s victory at Truist Championship ‘amazing’
Kristoffer Reitan’s rookie season started slow. After seven events, he had missed three cuts, his best finish a T17 at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, played in his new home town.
But he settled in and over the next five tournaments he closed with four top 15s and a strong Masters where he tied for 41st. Reitan was two shots out of second place after the second round at Augusta.
A runner-up at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he teamed with Ventura, was followed by his breakthrough, two-shot victory at the signature event Truist Championship, coming in his 15th Tour start.
A victory recognized by fellow Europeans like Hovland and Rory McIlroy.
“Very impressive! Congrats to the man!” Hovland wrote on Instagram.
“It was amazing to see,” McIlroy said. “It’s that upward trajectory that you can get on whenever you play well and you shoot the scores. And Kristoffer is a prime example of that.”
Almost as impressive is moving on so quickly to play his second major of the year, and making the cut at the PGA Championship on a course that some of his more famous peers are whining about because of a difficult set-up.
Reitan was 3-over after a second-round 72 on the Aronimink Golf Club course that played just shy of 2.5 shots over par the first two days.
Reitan spent the early part of the week attempting to reset after the greatest thrill in his professional career.
“It was difficult trying to get into a space where you’re like, ‘okay, we’re starting from scratch again this week,’ ” he said. “You’re accomplishing a dream, it’s gonna take some getting down to earth again. This is just an unbelievable experience.”
That reality set in after two rounds, enough so that Reitan, whose world ranking is at a career-high No. 25, wasn’t happy just making the cut.
“It’s also kind of a nice feeling to be a little bit pissed off out there,” he said after that 72. “Reset that much that you can be a little bit pissed off about your game.”
Kristoffer Reitan inspired by family success
Kristoffer Reitan never was a prodigy. The 28-year-old struggled for years to secure his European Tour card, traversing the globe in hopes of one day figuring out a sport that definitely is not one that was foremost in the minds of Norwegian children.
That would be the cross-country skiing followed by soccer. The former is considered the country’s national sport, supported by Norway’s massive medal haul in the Olympics, 129 total, 45 more than second-place Sweden.
Which is why Norwegian children grow up wanting to be like Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the man known as “King Klaebo,” who is the Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus of cross-country skiing, all in one.
But Reitan was not completely sold on golf at first, dabbling in soccer for a bit before golf started emerging.
“I just ended up picking golf at a fairly early age, and that’s been my entire life for a long time,” Reitan said.
Kristoffer was introduced to the sport by his father, Magnus Reitan, an avid golfer but more known for the family business. Magnus is the CEO of Reitan Kapital and sits on the board of the Reitan Retail empire, which was founded by Kristoffer’s grandfather, Odd Reitan, a billionaire businessman.
Odd Reitan is co-owner and CEO of the Reitan Group, a Norwegian conglomerate that includes a discount grocery chain with more than 1,000 stores in Norway and Denmark. The company’s total revenue in 2022 was about $10 billion.
Which is why winning $3.6 million at the Truist, which brings his PGA Tour career earnings to $5.27 million, probably was not such a big deal for Reitan.
And the family’s success story does not stop there. Reitan’s younger sister, Viktoria Reitan, is an alt-pop artist who performed under the stage name “bby ivy,” and is now known as IVY.
Viktoria, 26, is considered a rising star in the Norwegian music industry and a popular influencer on social media with more than 340,000 Instagram followers.
Does that make Kristoffer the third-most popular Reitan?
“I have no idea,” he says.
But he knows what it means coming from a very successful family.
“Pretty inspiring,” he said. “They’re really good at what they do so I think I definitely inherited a little bit of that hard work, that work ethic.
“The huge thing for me growing up was I wanted to do something for myself and make a name for myself and try to be successful in my own field. I’m just trying to do them proud, and do my own thing.”
He’s off to a good start.
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Family success inspires PGA Tour rookie Kristoffer Reitan | D’Angelo
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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