Australia’s Brett Rumford clinched the inaugural ISPS Handa World Super 6 in his home city of Perth to climb over 50 places in the Race to Dubai Rankings Presented by Rolex after gaining 210,255 points from his sixth European Tour title, as the 39 year old hunts down a spot in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, at Jumeirah Golf Estates, for the third time, having featured previously in 2010 and 2013.
Thailand's teen sensation Phachara Khongwatmai came second after being defeated 2&1 by Rumford in the final, which saw an innovative mixture of stroke play and match play for the first time in European Tour history.
Rumford capped off an excellent week as he led from the first round firing scores of 66, 65, 68 in the stroke play segment before defeating Japan's Hideto Tanihara and Australian duo Wade Ormsby and Adam Bland on his way to the final showdown with the impressive Khongwatmai who had claimed the final berth in the match play stages after surviving an eight-man play-off for five places.
The 17 year old star gained 140,170 points for his runner-up finish to jump a staggering 85 positions in the Race to Dubai rankings, as he moved from 109th to 24th place.
“It highlights the magic of the European Tour when players like Brett Rumford can turn their season around with a victory like this just a few months after losing his European Tour card,” said Nick Tarratt, Director European Tour Dubai Office.
“With his playing privileges restored he now has a great chance of making the field for our US$8 million event at Jumeirah Golf Estates in November.
“Phachara Khongwatmai looks certain to be a star of the future and if he continues in his current form, I’m sure we’ll be seeing him challenging for top honours on a regular basis.”
Pre-tournament favourite Louis Oosthuizen birdied the sudden-death shootout hole three times in succession to finally get the better of American Johannes Veerman in the second round of match play but then lost to Adam Bland in the quarter-finals.
Bland beat fellow countryman Jason Scrivener in the third-fourth place play-off to gain 78,973 points, while Scrivener gained 63,078 points and climbed from 61st to 32nd in the Race to Dubai rankings.
Oosthuizen won the fifth-sixth place finish against Australia’s Steven Jeffress to gain 53,490 points while Australia’s Wade Ormsby made big strides, jumping from 106th to 68th in the standings after gaining 31,539 points for beating Matthew Millar in the seventh-eighth place play-off, as he targets a return to the DP World Tour Championship, open only to the top 60 ranked players, for the first time since 2014.
England's Tommy Fleetwood remains on the top of the Race to Dubai rankings with a season tally of 566,717. Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti is in second with 461,689 points after winning last week's Maybank Championship. Korea's Jeunghun Wang is in third, having racked up 436,151 points so far this season.
The next event of the 2017 Race to Dubai season sees the European Tour travel to South Africa and Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC for the Joburg Open.
For the latest Race to Dubai Rankings Presented by Rolex click here.
