Englishman Jamie Rutherford will tee it up on the European Challenge Tour in 2022 after winning the EuroPro Tour’s Order of Merit in 2021.
The 29-year-old won the Tour’s season-ending Matchroom Tour Championship at Slaley Hall in England by one stroke to capture the £25,000 first prize and leap to the top of the Rankings, earning his Challenge Tour playing rights for 2022 in the process.
The 2017 European Tour rookie had already enjoyed a solid season on the UK-based Tour, making 13 cuts from 14 starts with one second and one third placed finish, as well as seven further top tens.
Rutherford turned professional in 2013 aged 21 but suffered a setback in February 2016 when he fractured his spine during a car accident. Not to be deterred, he returned to competitive golf just six months later and his comeback was complete later that year as he progressed through all three stages of the European Tour group’s Qualifying School to earn his top tier playing privileges for 2017.
He was unable to retain his status for the 2018 season and then went on to lose his playing rights on the Challenge Tour in 2019, but has now earned another chance on the Road to Mallorca in 2022.
Rutherford will be joined on the Challenge Tour in 2022 by fellow EuroPro Tour graduates Mitch Waite and Dan Brown, of England, and Scotland’s Calum Fyfe.
The final EuroPro Tour graduate is Englishman John Parry, who has previously won on the European Tour. The 35-year-old, who played in the same Walker Cup team as four-time Major Champion Rory McIlroy in 2007, won the 2010 Vivendi Cup.
