As preparations for the new Challenge Tour campaign build to a head, challengetour.com's Nick Totten took a look at a few key statistics in the first of a three-part series that should shine a light on what it will take for this year’s incumbents to make it into the all hallowed top 15 on the Rankings come season’s end.
Last year was the latest in a long line of stellar Challenge Tour terms, in which the golf on display from the graduating class of 2015 was exemplary – a fact that is borne out by the numbers when you dig a little deeper into the statistics on offer.
To start with, let’s cast our net a little wider, before drilling down into a few more individual achievements.
Overall
On average, to make the top 15 on the season-long list, you had totee it up on 19 occasionsand could afford to onlymiss the cut four timesat anaverage of 75 percent. From those starts, you would be expected to finish in the top tenat least a thirdof the time – winning at least once, and rounding out the other two steps on the podium a minimum of twice.
It goes without saying that to achieve those results you need to score low, and that is exactly what the players did en route to aseason-long average of 70.39for each round they played, finishing 37th andearning €119,066at a rate of€6,137 per tournament.
Last season’s class of 2015 was also multicultural in the extreme, made up ofeight nationalities, of which England and France were the most represented at four. As part of that, Byeong-hun An not only became thefirst Korean to win on the Challenge Tourwhen he took the title at the prestigious Rolex Trophy, he also earned the honour of being the first from his nation to qualify through the second tier.
Individual Honours
As you look a little deeper into those broader figures, some high achievers jump out, the first of which beingthree-time winnersBenjamin Hebert and Moritz Lampert, the latter of which earned the most money per event last season,banking €12,472in each of the 12 events he played.
That saw the impressive German narrowly pip Rankings winner Andrew Johnston in that category, although the Englishman was one of the most consistent in 2014, finishing in thetop ten 56 per centof the time. When it comes to consistency though, it is hard to beat Edouard Espana, who teed it up23 times and missed just one cut, at a four round percentage of96 per cent.
The Frenchman also finished higher, more often, than any other player en route to anaverage positionfor the season of21st place, so while he missed out on a maiden Challenge Tour title last year, hissix finishes between fourth and tenthplace assured him of 11th spot on the Rankings.
When it came to podium finishes though, there were few more impressive than Florian Fritsch and Mark Tullo, the former finishingrunner up on three occasions– twice as the result of a play-off – while the latter was third just as many times.
Unfortunate not to win at least once last campaign, Fritsch was able to put himself in such lofty positions on the leaderboard thanks to thebest scoring average on the circuit, as one of only three men to average under 70. His impressivefour round median of 69.13saw him edge France’s Michael Lorenzo-Vera (69.54) and top dog Johnston (69.64) en route to 12th place on the Rankings.
Close, but no cigar
In order to emphasise the narrow margins at play come the end of any Challenge Tour season, here are just a few instances of how any aspiring professional can come within a whisker of realising their Race to Dubai ambitions, only to be denied.
For example, Antonio Hortal – who finished in the dreaded 16th on the Rankings – had theeighth best scoring averageon the Challenge Tour, yet the Spaniard was unable to earn his graduation at the first time of asking. He was also12th in cuts madepercentage andtenth in average position, but wasonly 17th in earnings per event, and perhaps most importantly,just 25th in top ten percentage.
So while Hortal had a very successful year,winning a maiden titleat the Challenge de Madrid, he was unable to quite push over the line and earn graduation due to the strength in depth of European golf's second tier.
It was much the same for Frenchman Cyril Bouniol who rankedsixth in top ten percentage, however, many of those were between fourth and tenth, which meant he only amassed€3,333 per event. That placed him24th in that particular category, and is one of the main reasons why he was unable to finish higher than 19th on the overall Rankings.
Proof, therefore, that the calibre of player on the Challenge Tour ishigher than ever, and with 2015 set to get underway this month at the Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI, it remains to be seen which 15 players will be celebrating promotion come the Grand Final.
