With just eight events remaining on the HotelPlanner Tour before the Rolex Grand Final in Mallorca, the time is now for the Irish contingent to make a charge towards the DP World Tour card places.
This time around there is little room for error with the available cards cut from 20 to 15 for this season and at the moment there are no guarantees of a presence in the Grand Final let alone a spot in the top-15.
Liam Nolan endured a what could have been week. A blistering 64 in round one and a hole in one on Saturday proved almost an irrelevance as he finished 47th at the Scottish Challenge.
Nolan burst out of the traps last year with two top-3 finishes early doors on the HotelPlanner Tour which laid the foundation for his push towards the Grand Final, although he was unsuccessful in earning one of the 20 DP World Tour cards in Mallorca.
This year, a more consistent year makes him Ireland’s highest ranked player again, with three top-10s and just four missed cuts, but despite that he lingers outside the top-30 on the Road to Mallorca Rankings and with an eye cast towards this week’s Irish Challenge at Killeen Castle and the two bigger points events in China, he knows it’s time to make a charge.
“This week was similar enough to next week’s course [for the Irish Challenge at Killeen Castle], so I do like this run of events because everything just feels a little more familiar than usual,” said the Galway man.
Gary Hurley, Ireland’s second highest ranked player in 54th missed the cut after a good start to the week.
Max Kennedy also had a what could have been week as he let slip a promising halfway position in Scotland with weekend rounds of 73 to finish 56th.
The Royal Dublin man is 56th in the Road to Mallorca Rankings and know his first port of call will be to break into the top-45 which are the Grand Final places.
Mark Power, who admittedly loves Killeen Castle, put two weekend rounds of 69 together to finish 30th at the Scottish Challenge to give himself some confidence heading to County Meath. The Kilkenny man is currently battling to retain his playing status but if he can put four rounds together consistently between now and the end of the campaign he can vault up the rankings.
Conor Purcell has endured a difficult season since dropping down from the DP World Tour but he has a good Irish Challenge record and a return to home soil could be what he needs.
As it stands there are seventeen Irish players in the field with James Sugrue, Ronan Mullarney, Brandon St John, JR Galbraith, Robert Moran, Robert Brazill, Daniel Mulligan, Dermot McElroy, Sam Murphy, Irish PGA Champion Cormac Sharvin, PGA in Ireland captain Simon Thornton and amateur John Doyle also teeing it up.
The winner of the Irish Challenge would receive valuable HotelPlanner Tour ranking points and surely an Irish Open invite for next month. But should there not be a home winner of the event at Killeen Castle, the leading Irishman will come away with the Christy O’Connor Trophy and a place in the Irish Open in Doonbeg.
Moran chipped in on the 18th last year to clinch his spot in dramatic fashion while Tom McKibbin is a previous winner of the trophy.
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