Contested over 54 holes at Golf Nazionale and Terre dei Consoli golf clubs an hour north of Rome, Alps Tour Q-School Final Stage is the effective last chance saloon for seven of the Irish pros seeking full tour status in 2025.
Having recently relinquished his amateur status, Hugh Foley’s first professional outing will see him join John Murphy, Marc Boucher, Liam Nolan, Michael Young, Brandon St. John and Tom Dowdall as they battle 149 other contestants from 23 countries, all hoping to finish inside the top 35 and earn Category 6 membership to the circuit next season.
After 36 holes, the field will be cut to the top 65 and ties, and those finishing 36th to 65th on the final leaderboard will earn Category 8 status. It’s not all doom and gloom for those who miss the cut, however, as by virtue of finding themselves at final stage, finishing between 66th and 156th carries Category 9 membership, but they’ll get limited starts.
Foley, Murphy and Nolan will all take on Golf Nazionale on day one, with the freshly-minted pro from Royal Dublin in the lead-off group on the 10th hole, with Nolan following just behind. Murphy tees off at the same time as Nolan, albeit on the other side of the course.
At Terre dei Consoli, Boucher will begin from the opening group on hole number 10, while Dowdall, St, John and Young all begin on the front nine.
The players swap courses for round two, before those who survive the 36-hole cut all assemble at Golf Nazionale for the final 18 holes. The George and Jim Fazio-designed course is considered one of the toughest in all of Italy, and the heavily tree-lined course and less than half the field finished the week in red figures when it hosted DP World Tour First Stage qualifying back in late August.
The Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed Terre dei Consoli will be familiar to many of the field, having regularly hosted Alps and Challenge Tour events since opening its doors in 2011, and shooting a good number around it will be imperative for the aspirations of the seven Irishmen.
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