With three holes to play in the fourth and final round of the Asian Tour pre-Qualifier in Bangkok, Alex Maguire was two-over for the day and projected to miss out on qualification for next week’s Final Stage.
A pair of 67s sandwiched a one-over 71 on the opening three days, and it looked as though he was going to come up short, particularly when he failed to birdie the short par-4 16th after finding the greenside bunker off the tee.
“I’d played okay, but I didn’t really feel good on the greens,” he admitted. “I couldn’t hole anything inside 10 feet. I was struggling with the lines and the pace, and kept leaving putts short. Then, on 16, when I left the bunker shot about 20 feet short, and missed the putt, I thought ‘that’s the whole journey over then’.”
But he still had two holes to play and the closing hole was a par-5, so though the chances were slim, he wasn’t completely out of the running.
“I hit a good shot into 17, leaving myself about 30 feet, and I hit a really good putt there and it went in, so I found myself thinking, ‘Jesus, if I can eagle the last, then who knows’.
“I hit a good drive and a 7-iron into the last, but I had about 50 feet left and it was a really tough putt – up and over a ridge, then down a slope and swinging from the right. I hit it and I thought it was a bit pacy, but it caught the edge and shot into the back of the hole. I couldn’t believe it when it dropped, but even then I didn’t know if it would be enough to get me a playoff spot or if I’d be a shot shy.”
With no leaderboards on course and no live scoring, he had to wait for the remaining five groups to finish before learning his fate, and as those behind began to come in, it was looking more and more likely that he’d have more golf to play with 22 places at Final Stage available.
“It looked like it was going to be a four-for-two playoff, but then very late, two other guys dropped back so it ended up being a six-for-five playoff,” he explained. “We went back to the 16th – that driveable par-4, and I’m up second. I hit a really good tee shot, almost hit the flag, and left myself in a nice spot at the back of the green.
“Then, two of the lads hit it in the water, so that made it fairly easy from there.
“In a six-for-five playoff, you know that it’s probably going to be a mistake and somebody will lose it, whereas in a six-for-one playoff, it’s going to take a brilliant shot to win it.
“You feel really bad for the guys that make the mistakes, but as soon as I drove the green, I knew it was more than likely that I was going to be ok.”
It would take a hard person to claim that Maguire’s not been due a bit of luck. He missed out by a single shot at DP World Tour Q-School, and his best performances throughout the season have all come on different tours, meaning the ranking points he accumulated in each didn’t count towards the other, and it left him in something of a ‘no-man’s-land’ as the year was drawing to a close.
But, the revived MENA Tour threw him a lifeline, and navigating Q-School there gave him a place to play in 2026 regardless, but, as yet, the tour has no pathways onto higher-level tours.
“Getting MENA Tour status at least gave me somewhere to play next year,” he said. “And it’s a boost knowing I’ll have guaranteed status somewhere for the first time. And yeah, I felt like I was due a bit of luck, because there were so many events where I was a shot on the wrong side of things, but luckily I got in on the number today and I felt like that eagle put on the last hole was almost like letting bygones be bygones and hopefully this is a new and fresh start going forward.”
It’s only part one of the job completed, however, and he now makes a three-hour-trip south to Hua Hin where the five-round Final Stage Qualifier begins on Wednesday and he’ll join John Ross Galbraith who qualified the week prior.
But there is much more than just Asian Tour status at stake.
“Obviously, if I got a full [Asian Tour] card, I’ll definitely use it, you know, it’s sort of the whole point why I’m here. But if you get full Asian tour card, then you get Golf Ireland funding, which is a massive help, so that’s another incentive.
“You get a bit of a backing, some funding to help travel all around Asia, and then you might even get a few HotelPlanner Tour starts or maybe DP World Tour starts out of it too.
“But that’s out of my hands. You want to be in control of your own destiny, so if I can earn my way there then that’d be great.”
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