Liam Nolan put in a disciplined third round performance to finish in joint third place at Alps Tour Q-School, and the Galway man will have full status on the circuit for his first full year as a pro.
Entering the final round one shot back in a tie for second, Nolan knew that avoiding big numbers on the card would be sufficient to earn the highest status possible for 2025. A bogey on the third and a birdie on the seventh got him to the turn at level-par, and he got into red figures for the first time on the day with a birdie on the par-4 11th.
At this point, he was back within a shot of the lead and the top medallist position, but a disappointing bogey on the par-5 14th saw him slip two back. He signed off the week with a birdie on the last, reaching the clubhouse at -8 and two shots back from the eventual winner.
Marc Boucher earned Category 8 status for 2024 thanks to a T40 finish at this event last year, but he’ll start from a higher standpoint in 2025 after putting three consecutive rounds of level-par together. A bogey on six was followed by birdie on seven, and he parred the 16 other holes to climb into a tie for 18th.
John Murphy started the day at -3, and after making birdie on the second hole, had eyes on pushing his way towards the top of the leaderboard. Despite back-to-back bogeys on four and five, he got himself back to level-par for the day with a birdie on nine, then traded another bogey and birdie at the start of the back nine. Disaster lurked on the par-3 12th, however, and a triple bogey-six was followed by further dropped shots on 13 and 15 and suddenly he was in danger of slipping outside the top 35 and into Category 8 status. A birdie on the last got him in at +1 overall, tied for 26th, so he too will be a regular feature on the tour next season.
It was a similar story for Michael Young, though it was a triple bogey-eight on the par-5 14th that threatened to derail his week having made four bogeys and a birdie prior. Two birdies in his final three holes got him into the clubhouse at +2, finishing in a six-way tie for 30th on the number that rounds out the Category 6 qualifiers.
Hugh Foley was the man with ground to make up and, starting on the back nine, immediately thrust himself forward with back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11. That was as good as it got, however, and over the following 16 holes he carded four bogeys and two double bogeys to fall to +7 overall and end the week tied for 61st. He’ll have Category 8 status for 2025.
Spain’s Jose Luis Adarraga Gomez held on to his 36-hole lead to take the tournament victory by a single stroke. Adarraga Gomez bogeyed three holes in succession on the front nine, but had made a birdie prior and rebounded to make four more over his closing 11 holes to get to -10.
“It was a very good tournament for me even if I had a tough start to the round making a few bogeys in a row. For the rest of the round, I focused and played some good golf. I made a very good birdie on the 18th hole to finish the round,” he said. “Both of the golf courses we played this week were in very good conditions, and the greens were in excellent conditions for the entire tournament also.”
Adarraga Gomez plans on: “playing the entire 2025 season on the Alps Tour to try and finish in the top 5 at the end of the year to earn access to the 2025 Challenge Tour.”
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