The battle to be named the 2011 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year looks set to be a straight fight between Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen, both of whom graduated from the Challenge Tour last season.
Olesen currently has the edge in the quest to succeed Matteo Manassero as the winner of the award, having climbed to 29th place in The Race to Dubai after accruing earnings of €553,277 in a hugely impressive debut campaign which now seems almost certain to culminate in a place in the field for the season-ending Dubai World Championship presented by DP World.
Jamieson is also on course to finish inside the top 60, after collecting €485,588 in prize money courtesy of five top six finishes.
Olesen’s stellar season continues a stratospheric rise through the ranks since he turned professional in 2008, having progressed from the satellite Nordic League in 2009 before finishing in third place in the Challenge Tour Rankings the following year, thanks chiefly to his victory in The Princess and a further four top five finishes.
The young Dane, who divides his footballing loyalties between FC Copenhagen and Manchester United, carried the fine form he showed on the Challenge Tour last term with him onto the top tier this year, as he flew out of the blocks with a joint runner-up finish on only his fifth European Tour appearance at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
One week later, Olesen followed up that impressive display with a tied ninth finish alongside fellow Challenge Tour graduate Robert Dinwiddie at the South African Open Championship, where he shot four sub-70 rounds.
Since then, the 21 year old has recorded two more joint runner-up finishes, missing out by a single stroke at both the Alstom Open de France and the BMW Italian Open presented by CartSi, where he closed with a stunning round of 62.
Similarly Jamieson, currently 35th in The Race to Dubai, has enjoyed feats of low scoring this season, with a round of 64 on the final day of the BMW International Open propelling him to a share of third place.
On home soil at the Barclays Scottish Open two weeks later, Jamieson earned €126,117– the biggest cheque of his fledgling European Tour career – after finishing in a tie for third place behind World Number One Luke Donald of England.
Jamieson was joined in a share of third at Castle Stuart Golf Links by two of his fellow 2010 Challenge Tour graduates, Lorenzo Gagli and Mark Tullo.
Along with Jamieson, who finished 14th in the final Challenge Tour Rankings, Gagli has been one of the surprise packages of the season.
The Italian only secured promotion to The European Tour on the final day of last season, roaring home in 32 strokes on the back nine of the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final to claim the top three finish he needed to climb into the all-important top 20 of the Rankings.
Gagli has made the most of his time on the top table this term, finishing in the top ten on four occasions to take his season’s earnings to €320,516 and comfortably keep his card for next year.
Having already earned €235,856 so far this season Tullo has also done enough, as have, in all probability, two more members of the Challenge Tour class of 2010, Sweden’s Oscar Floren (€200,206) and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (€191,127), respectively 94th and 99th in The Race to Dubai.
Australian Matthew Zions can also count on at least one more season on The European Tour, having won the dual-ranking SAINT-OMER OPEN presented by Neuflize OBC; but with only the top 115 in The Race to Dubai guaranteed to keep their cards, the likes of Rankings winner Alvaro Velasco of Spain (108th) and Sweden’s Joel Sjöholm (113th) still have some work to do.
Further down The Race to Dubai, one good week for England’s Lee Slattery (120th), Australian Daniel Gaunt (124th), Dinwiddie (130th), Sweden’s Magnus Carlsson (139th) or Dutchman Floris de Vries (146th) would see them climb the right side of the cut-off mark and so continue the Challenge Tour’s remarkable success rate in converting promising young tyros into seasoned European Tour professionals.
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