Tom McKibbin, Leona Maguire, Conor Purcell, Gary Hurley and Jonathan Caldwell all face big weeks as their season’s tick towards a conclusion while Seamus Power looks to build on a positive week on the PGA Tour.
DP World Tour
McKibbin is the lone Irish ranger in France this week as Le Golf National plays host to the FedEx Open de France.
Just three events are left in the regular DP World Tour season before the two playoff events with McKibbin ranked 15th on the Race to Dubai Rankings and ninth out of the ten available PGA Tour cards for next season.
Challenge Tour
The Road to Mallorca heads to China now for back-to-back weeks, starting with the Hainan Open which takes place at Sanya Luhuitou Golf Club from October 10-13, 2024.
Purcell will be looking to cement his place in the top-20 ahead of the Grand Final in three weeks time after dropping to 12th place last week.
Dermot McElroy is absent from competitive action again as Gary Hurley bids to keep his Grand Final hopes alive.
The West Waterford man is 41st in the Challenge Tour rankings with the top-45 advancing to Mallorca’s finale.
Jonathan Caldwell was the last man to maintain his full playing rights last week and he needs a big push over the next fortnight to qualify for the Grand Final.
LPGA Tour
Leona Maguire returns to action at the Buick LPGA Shanghai after a week off to rest and recuperate back in Ireland.
There are just six events remaining before the CME Group Tour Championship with the top-60 members (plus ties) on the Race to CME Globe Points List, advancing to the LPGA’s finale.
Maguire is ranked 49th after a slow season that saw her miss three of five major championship cuts and she will be looking over her shoulder as she enters the final run of events.
PGA Tour
Seamus Power finished in a share of 11th place at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship and he is back in action at the Black Desert Championship at Black Desert Resort.
Power The Toooraneena man is looking to get back into the world’s top 50 and after slipping to 119th this week, he moved up five places to 114th on Sunday night and could get back inside the top-100 this week.
Power is also looking to secure his position in the ‘Next 10’ at the conclusion of the FedEx Fall series and gain access to the first couple of Signature Events in 2025.
Thanks largely to his victory at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in late 2022 and solid early 2023 form, Power was in all of the big events in 2024, but early-season injury niggles didn’t help his cause. Still, a T10 finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship saw him climb to 54th in the FedEx rankings, and though that was four too high to make the field for the BMW Championship, it leaves him well-placed going into the final portion of the year.
From here on in, however, it’s a dogfight as those on the ‘125’ bubble are fighting for their 2025 playing rights and a couple of good weeks could vault you up the rankings and into the valuable top-10. It’s also likely that most of the upcoming tournament winners will be inside the top 50, so we can expect big jumps up the rankings.
This boils down to the fact that, though Power is well positioned, he needs to play well over the remaining stretch. A tournament win will guarantee his place at the The Sentry in Hawaii, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, but a strong finish will also go a long way to wrapping up his place in latter two.
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