Boonchu Ruangkit’s victory in the Benahavis Senior Masters extended his lead in the European Senior Tour Order of Merit to a commanding €45,259 but the race of the John Jacobs Trophy still looks set to go to the wire once again.
With the Thai withdrawing from this week’s Sicilian Senior Open due to a neck injury sustained in Spain, South African Chris Williams has the opportunity to close the gap at the top.
That would set up another exciting finale at next month’s OKI Castéllon Senior Tour season reminiscent of last year when six players retained a chance of winning the John Jacobs Trophy.
On that occasion Ian Woosnam took a €19,380 advantage to Spain only to see another former Ryder Cup Captain, Sam Torrance, edge him out by €3,380 in the closest Order of Merit race since 2000.
A successful week in Italy for Williams could see Ruangkit face a similar challenge in Castéllon.
Ruangkit has been the strong favourite to capture the John Jacobs Trophy since he began his campaign with three straight victories, in Brunei, Thailand and South Africa.
His impressive seven shot victory in last week’s Benahavis Senior Masters then saw him become the first player to win four times in his rookie campaign since Carl Mason in 2003 and took his season’s winnings to €254,796.
Indeed, had Ruangkit’s first prize of €44,333 from Brunei counted towards the Order of Merit – the 54 year old was not a Senior Tour Member at the time – he would now be closing in the €300,000 earnings mark previously only achieved by Seiji Ebihara (2002), Mason (2003, 2004, 2007), Torrance (2006) and Woosnam (2008).
Despite not yet securing his maiden Senior Tour title, the consistent Williams is his main threat for the Number One spot after taking his number of top ten finishes this season to ten with a share of fifth place in the Benahavis Senior Masters.
