As the European Challenge Tour season edges ever closer, the dilemma faced by Jack Senior is a familiar one for players without European Tour status.
A handful of times throughout the year, high-ranking Challenge Tour players who came just shy of earning a European Tour card the previous season have an opportunity to tee it up on the big stage.
While becoming a fully-fledged member of the European Tour is the goal of every Challenge Tour player, the decision on whether or not to forgo a start on the Challenge Tour — and the ranking points that come with it — in pursuit of a big week on the European Tour is indeed a tough one.
Making the decision harder is the fact that there is no clear blueprint on the best route to go. Last year alone, Challenge Tour players earned European Tour cards both ways—by seizing the moment on the big stage, and also by taking the long view, building up points over a full season on the Challenge Tour to ultimately join the top tier after finishing in the top 15 on the Rankings.
It is worth remembering that by teeing it up on the European Tour, players are missing out on vital Rankings points which their competitors are collecting in their absence.
Last year, Grant Forrest and Robert MacIntyre, now two of the European Tour’s most promising rookies, both found themselves practicing patience as they made the difficult choice to turn down starts on the global golfing stage. Their rationale was clear; focus on the Challenge Tour now, and enjoy a full season on the European Tour later.
Over a combined 44 starts the decision paid off, and despite neither of the two players winning, they both achieved their ultimate goal when they tapped in at the Challenge Tour Grand Final to finish the 2018 season inside the all-important top 15.
Contrasting the strategy of the two young Scots last year, were Englishmen Tom Lewis and Richard McEvoy.
McEvoy first triumphed at Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge and elected to fill the spot reserved for the previous week’s Challenge Tour winner when he teed it up the next week at the Porsche European Open. The decision was the right one for McEvoy, who sealed a one-shot victory, and an immediate two-year exemption on the European Tour.
Lewis followed a similar strategy as well. Electing to take every European Tour start he could garner, the 2011 Portugal Masters winner was clearly rounding into form. He surely sensed his game was coming together when he won the Bridgestone Challenge, but having missed several starts on the Challenge Tour throughout the year, the win was not enough to place him inside the top 15.
Determined to get back to the European Tour, Lewis was able to avoid a nail-biting finish to his Challenge Tour season— and capitalise on his form— by taking up his spot in the field and then triumphing at the Portugal Masters in late September.
The success of both McEvoy and Lewis shows not only that their respective decisions to tee it up on the top tier were correct, but also the quality of players on the Challenge Tour. In any given week that a Challenge Tour player brings their A-game, they are more than capable of winning on golf’s biggest stage.
All of which only adds to the complexity of the decision Senior will face in 2019.
Last year on the Challenge Tour, the Englishman recorded five top tens and eight top 20s, to finish the season 28th on the final Rankings. Despite not graduating to the European Tour, his high finish on the season-long points race should present him with a small number of European Tour starts in 2019.
For his part, the former Walker Cup player is still not sure which route he will go.
“It’s a tough decision,” he said. “I’ve been in this situation a couple of times before. It all depends on how you’re playing on either Tour. Obviously with the European Tour, if you have that good week and you finish in that top three in the right event, then it sets you up for the rest of the season.
“Whereas on the Challenge Tour, you’re probably going to have to finish with around 85,000 points at the end of the year, and you haven’t got a big difference in prize fund week-to-week this year, so I think it’s going to be a little bit more consistency based.
“I felt like I was really consistent last year and I didn’t quite have those big finishes, so I think if I play like I did last year then I’m going to be in with a great shout.”
Just as in golf, there is no one way to go about things. What works for some, might not work for others. Regardless of what direction Senior decides to go in 2019, one thing will always remain the same.
“You’ve got to go out and try your best to win every golf tournament you play. Some weeks it happens, some weeks it doesn’t, but you’ve just got to go out there and do your very best.”
