Almost a year after sealing their European Tour cards at the Challenge Tour Grand Final, it was make-or-break time again for several members of the Class of 2018 at the Portugal Masters, with only the top 115 players in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex regaining their status for the 2020 season.
After the final putt dropped on Sunday, 11 of the 15 graduates managed to do exactly that, with Englishman Jack Singh Brar securing his playing rights for next year with a gutsy putt on the final green.
It has been a remarkable season so far for the group who, with three victories and 21 top ten finishes between them, are the most successful band of graduates in over a decade.
David Law was the first of the 15 players to taste victory this season, triumphing at the ISPS Handa Vic Open in just his fifth start of the year, before Sebastian Söderberg secured his maiden European Tour triumph in a thrilling five-way play-off at the Omega European Masters. In that play-off Söderberg defeated World Number Two Rory McIlroy and two other members of the Class of 2018, Kalle Samooja and Lorenzo Gagli.
Victor Perez then brought the cohort’s trophy total to three with his impressive maiden victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship against the strongest field the iconic tournament has ever had.
The winners are not the only graduates to make their mark on the European Tour however. Robert MacIntyre, who currently occupies the seventh position in the Race to Dubai, leads his classmates and will be looking to climb further as he tees it up in a World Golf Championships event for the first time this week.
The Scot has occupied the runner-up spot three times this season and has proven he can handle playing in the very biggest tournaments. The Oban native finished tied sixth in his Major Championship debut at The Open in July and with just the WGC- HSBC Champions and the final three Rolex Series events remaining on the calendar, he will be looking to wrap-up the coveted Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award over the coming weeks.
The 2018 Challenge Tour Grand Final winner Adri Arnaus, who himself has notched three runner-up finishes this season, and last year’s Challenge Tour Number One Joachim B. Hansen will join Söderberg, Perez and MacIntyre at the Turkish Airlines Open, which is reserved for only the top 70 players from the European Tour season.
Law, Samooja, Gagli, as well as American Sean Crocker, and Scot Grant Forrest have been able to look forward to a second consecutive season on the European Tour for a while, and they are now joined by Singh Brar, the last of the 11 players to secure his card for next season with a clutch top ten finish in Portugal.
Emotion. Nerves. Relief.
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 28, 2019
Tour cards were on the line at the #PortugalMasters 😧
The Englishman, holed a clutch 12 foot bogey putt on the 72nd green to secure his playing rights for next season after starting the tournament dangerously close to the cut-off mark, in 117th position. His final round of 66 was enough to move him inside the all-important top 115.
