Jonathan Caldwell is in prime position heading into the weekend at the co-sanctioned Challenge and Sunshine Tour’s Nelson Mandela Bay Championship at Humewood Golf Club in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and the Clandeboye man has clear season-long goals in mind.
“Yeah, small goals and bigger goals,” he said after his second successive excellent round which left him one shot off the lead in solo third. “The big goal is obviously finishing that top 20 gain status back on the main tour, but also, you know, get a win under the belt, which would be nice and if I can do that, then it’ll give me a great chance of finishing in the top 20.”
The Bangor native last tasted success at the DP World Tour’s Scandinavian Masters back in 2021, becoming just the 24th Irish born player to win a singles title on the premier European circuit since the formation of the modern tour in 1972, but the years in between have been a struggle and he dropped back to the Challenge Tour in 2023. And after early season struggles, green shoots began to appear in the middle part of the year and he took the Christy O’Connor Jnr Memorial Trophy as leading Irish player, earning an invite to tee it up at the Irish Open at the K Club in the process.
Although he’d left it too late to play his way into the top 45 on the Road to Mallorca rankings to contest the Challenge Tour Grand Final in October, he returned to DP World Tour Q-School and all was going to plan for the first five days before a final-round hiccup saw him fall three strokes shy of earning his card back, but despite the obvious disappointment, he’s not spent much time dwelling on it.
“Well, I took a long break actually, and then I had an injury, so I didn’t do a lot of stuff,” he said, “but I moved house so that’s really time consuming.
“I filled my time with a lot of things, and it was nice to get a break from the game. And obviously, with the weather at home, it’s indoor golf this time of year, so I try and do a wee bit of that. But yeah, I really didn’t do a lot and sort of reset and have a nice break. And I’m just getting into the swing of things again.”
Getting back in the winners’ circle and setting and moving into the top 10 in the 2024 Road to Mallorca standings would be the perfect way to finish the week after two missed cuts in his first two starts, but experience has taught him not to get too far ahead of himself.
“Oh, it would be great,” he replied when asked about hitting his target of a win this week, before preaching caution. “I mean, I’m not thinking about that on Friday afternoon. Hopefully I’ll have a chance on the back nine on Sunday and if I can get across the line, then great.
“But, you know, I feel like my game is moving in the right direction. Like I said, I haven’t played a lot of golf over the winter, so you know, a couple of missed cuts to start, the season is not great, but I seem to be finding something this week. So, fingers crossed.”
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