The DP World Tour may be unsure whether they will have their season ending Tour Championship in Dubai this November but the HotelPlanner Tour are pressing on with the rescheduled Abu Dhabi Challenge – the final regular event of the season.
For locally based professional Damien Scott and West of Ireland champion Mark Cadden, this week can be viewed as a free hit but for the remaining seven Irish players teeing it up it is anything but with each player carrying their own agenda at Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club.
The top-70 players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings will advance to the two Chinese events in October which carry 750 extra points before the Grand Final in Alcanada.
Sitting just outside the top-70 in the rankings are Mark Power in 73rd and Max Kennedy in 77th who both need strong performances to extend their seasons and keep alive their hopes of perhaps breaking into the top-45 for the Grand Final.
Further down the rankings are Ronan Mullarney (136th), Conor Purcell, (155th) and James Sugrue (214th) who are all searching for something remarkable this week, otherwise it will be the yearly slog at Q-School.
There is hope further up the rankings in Gary Hurley and Liam Nolan.
Hurley, despite his continuous battle with parsonage turner syndrome, has enjoyed a solid campaign so far and ranks 55th in the season long race. His place in China is secure and his focus over the next three events will be to get inside the top-45 and give himself a realistic chance of obtaining one of the fifteen DP World Tour cards available at the Grand Final.
The same goes for Liam Nolan who made last year’s Grand Final. His quest for a DP World Tour card was heavily backed by quick fire top-5 finishes early in his season. This year he has been consistent with three top-10 finishes and just five missed cuts. But consistency doesn’t get rewarded on the HotelPlanner Tour compared to that bit of streakiness and volatility.
Still, the Galway man can run hot when he gets in the groove, and there would be no better time to find a rich vein of form than over the next three events.
Back across the pond in Slaley Hall it is the Clutch Pro Tour’s Tour Championship where the top-3 in the Order of Merit at the end of the championship will earn promotion to the HotelPlanner Tour.
Ireland have three hopefuls in the running with Alex Maguire, Paul McBride and John Murphy aiming to reach Europe’s second tier.
All three players have tasted victory this season with McBride getting over the line twice. Players who finish 4-7th in the rankings will earn seven HotelPlanner Tour starts.
With double points on offer at this event starting on Wednesday, Maguire (6th), McBride (8th) and Murphy (9th) can break into the card places with a high finish. A win would take care of everything.
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