Conor Purcell – the only Irish player in the limited 45-player field for this week’s Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final in Mallorca – has his fate in his own hands in the quest for a precious full card on the DP World Tour.
Given the nature of the final event of the season on the Challenge Tour, all 45 players in the no-cut 72 holes tournament have a mathematical chance of claiming a golden ticket to the main circuit with 20 full tour cards available.
Purcell – who had three top-10s this year, including a runner-up finish in the Dormy Open in Sweden in August – is currently 36th on the order of merit and will need to leapfrog his way into the top 20 to claim the prized card.
Indeed, whoever finishes 21st in the final order of merit is likely to also get a card, as Alex Fitzpatrick (currently ninth) has already secured his full playing rights for next season through his position, playing on sponsors’ invites, on the Race to Dubai standings and has opted to miss Mallorca.
While the Dubliner is the only Irish golfer in Mallorca, no fewer than 12 Irish players are involved in the DP World Tour second stage of qualifying at four venues in Spain this week.
Paul Dunne, Conor O’Rourke and Dermot McElroy are playing in Las Pinaillas; Marc Boucher is playing at Desert Springs; Paul McBride, Niall Kearney and Ronan Mullarney are in action at Isla Canela, while Ruaidhrí McGee, John Murphy, Mark Power, Robert Moran and Alex Maguire are competing at Fontanois.
This second stage of qualifying will see 39 players from each venue progressing on to the Tour School Final in Tarragona on November 10th-15th, where 25 tour cards for next season will be dispensed.
First PGA event to be held on a Woods-designed course
Tiger Woods, who underwent ankle surgery last April, has yet to indicate when he will get back playing competitive golf again but his influence on the PGA Tour – where he shares the record of 82 wins with Sam Snead – will be evident at this week’s World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico.
The tournament will become the first PGA Tour event will be held on a Woods-designed golf course.
El Cardonal, which opened for play in 2014, was the first course completed by Woods’s TGR design agency with the player remarking of his design philosophy: “I set up the golf strategy to make golfers think and make choices. There are going to be different ways to play every hole. Angles of approach are going to be very important and will dictate the type of shots you should consider. I love this type of golf.”
Since designing El Cardonal, Woods’s portfolio of courses has grown to also include Bluejack National in Houston, Texas and Payne’s Valley in Missouri with some half dozen other projects currently in development.
Word of Mouth
“It’s exhausting . . . but I think it’s the best playoff I ever had in my life. Even if I lose, I feel like, ‘oh damn, we played so good’” – Atthaya Thitikul after losing a playoff to Celine Boutier in the Maybank LPGA Championship. Boutier won at the ninth hole of sudden death, as the French player won for a fourth time this season to move to the top of the LPGA Tour order of merit with just three scheduled events remaining.
By the Numbers: 66
Stephanie Meadow’s busy Asian Swing on the LPGA Tour closes out at this week’s Toto Japan Classic in Ibaraki, her fourth event in four weeks which has seen her play in China, South Korea, Malaysia and now Japan. Meadow, who finished tied-20th in the Maybank, is currently 66th on the LPGA order of merit.
On this day: October 21st, 2004
With the benefit of hindsight, there’s some irony to be found in the words of Ian Poulter after he outdueled Sergio Garcia to win the European Tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama in the south of Spain.
“I think the European Tour will always be my home . . . I will always play my quota, if not more than my quota of events,” said Poulter after a sudden-death playoff win over Garcia, back then eyeing up a move to the PGA Tour and juggling his responsibilities with also playing on the European circuit.
That, of course, was all long before LIV came along and enticed both Poulter and Garcia with millions of greenbacks.
Poulter’s Volvo Masters win came in a season where pre-tournament he had given himself just one out of 10 for his own performances, finally reaching the winner’s podium in earning a pay-day of €625,000 that jumped him to ninth on the European Tour order of merit to finish his year’s work in style.
Both Poulter and Garcia closed with 70s for a seven-under-par total of 277 and the Englishman claimed the title at the first hole of sudden death after the Spaniard pushed his drive into the trees.
“It was unbelievable to come here and win. I felt I shouldn’t be satisfied with the way my year had panned out. I had played okay but not managed to finish anything off. This is a sweet end to the year . . . I believe I’m capable of winning two, three, four, five times in a year. I am hard on myself and I guess that’s the only way you can keep moving forward,” added Poulter.
X-Twitter Twaddle
What an end to an extraordinary season @DPWorldTour. Only myself to blame putting myself in this position. Plenty of opportunities this year but just didn’t take them. So pleased with how I played this week under pressure #CMQMasters was a great test and course was (brilliant) – Ross Fisher on securing his tour card for next season. The veteran tour player finished in 116th on the order of merit after the Qatar Masters, taking the last automatic card for the 2024 season.
Kind of disappointed I didn’t get invite to defend My Title ... Well played @celineboutier for Winning the @maybankchampion – a tongue-in-cheek Scott Hend, who won the Maybank last year but which has now become an LPGA Tour event.
Well @TheBigEasy did tell me two months ago @Twickenhamstad that the @Springboks would win the @rugbyworldcup this year for a 4th time!!!! Congratulations South Africa – South African-born English golfer Justin Rose on Ernie Els’s crystal ball-gazing.
In the Bag: Celine Boutier (Maybank LPGA Championship)
Driver: PXG 0311 Gen5 (9 degrees)
3-wood: Ping G425 Max (14.5 degrees)
Hybrids: PXG 0311 Gen 5 (19 and 25 degrees); Gen6 (22 degrees)
Irons: PXG 0311 T Gen4 (6-PW)
Wedges: PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy II Milled (50, 54 and 58 degrees)
Putter: Bettinardi DASS Studio Stock 3
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Know the Rules
Q: In stroke play, a player hits their tee shot to the fairway with ball A. The second shot is over water so they mark the position of ball A and replace it with their “water ball” (ball B). After hitting ball B to the green, they replace it with ball A and hole out. What is the ruling?
A: The player gets two penalty strokes under Rule 6.3b (Substitution of another ball while playing a hole).
