The Madeira Islands Open represents an excellent opportunity for Challenge Tour players to not only win a European Tour card instantly, but to stamp their authority on the Rankings early in the season.
A win in the event at Santo de Serra this week would give the champion exemption on The European Tour until the end of 2013, and the prize fund of €675,000 – far higher than any other event on the Challenge Tour schedule – makes it the equivalent of a Major Championship.
Prize money counts for both The Race to Dubai and the Challenge Tour Rankings, although it is capped at €500,000 for the latter, and England’s Chris Gane was the perfect example last year of how a good performance can change your entire season.
He finished second on the neighbouring island of Porto Santo, where the tournament has been played for the last three years, and prize money of €60,795 – capped at €43,425 for the Challenge Tour – sent him straight to the top of the Rankings.
He eventually finished the season in 19th place, earning a European Tour card, and that was only possible because he produced his best performance when it mattered most.
Federico Colombo is another example. The young Italian was tied fourth in Madeira last year, earning €21,223 which was a large chunk of his total season earnings of €81,834 to finish seventh in the Rankings. Without that prize money, he would have ended the year outside the top 20 and therefore would not have gained a European Tour card for 2012.
The event also offers players in lower exemption categories the perfect chance to become a European Tour winner, often for the first time.
Englishman James Morrison had come up from the Challenge Tour the previous year when he won in 2010 for his maiden title, holding off the strong challenge of compatriot Oliver Fisher, and Argentine pair Estanislao Goya and Daniel Vancsik both notched their first European Tour wins in the 2009 and 2007 editions of the tournament respectively. Welshman Bradley Dredge also claimed his first European Tour title here in 2003, carding a spectacular third round 60 along the way.
