Some 10 months after setting off on his odyssey, Richard Coughlan put up a brave but ultimately futile fight to retain his tour card in the National Car Rental Classic at the Lake Buena Vista resort in Disney World, Florida yesterday.
The Birr-attached touring professional will now have to compete in next month's qualifying school if he is to secure his playing rights for next season after finishing with a final round of 70 for a seven-under-par aggregate of 281 in the final counting event in the Order of Merit prior to the Tour Championship which is confined to just the top 30 players.
While John Huston confirmed his liking for the Magnolia course by firing a finishing 66 for 16-under-par 272, which enabled him to come from four shots behind overnight leader Davis Love III and eventually win by one stroke, Coughlan failed to make the required headway and his tied 19th position means he must face the qualifying school lottery again.
Coughlan, however, came very close. He was actually four under par for his final round after 13 holes - to be on the nine under par mark - but bogeyed two of the last four holes, the 14th and the 18th, which probably would have been enough to get him into the top 150 on the moneylist and straight into final qualifying. Now, though, the Irishman will have to get through the second pre-qualifying event in two weeks' time.
He reached the turn in twounder-par 34 yesterday and added further birdies at the 10th and 12th (to make it three birdies in four holes) until the lapse over the closing stretch proved costly. Coughlan wasn't alone, however, in failing to reach his objective, as Sandy Lyle finished with a 76 for 289 and he, too, must face the lottery of the qualifying school if he is to play in the United States next season.
Meanwhile, Huston, whose career was last year threatened by a shoulder injury, played catch-up on Love to take the title and the top cheque for $360,000. Huston, who shot a closing round 62 to win the same tournament in 1992, had a bogey-free round. "I didn't miss a green all day," he said, "and the speed on them was just great, which gave me a big advantage."
After recording his fifth birdie of the round at the 13th to join Love on 15 under par, Huston went ahead for the first time when he birdied the 16th and, almost simultaneously, Love bogeyed the 15th, where he missed the green right and failed to get up and down from the Bermuda rough. Although Love birdied the 16th, he could only manage pars at the final two holes.
