By Mathieu Wood
After a combined 32 seasons on the DP World Tour, Edoardo Molinari and James Morrison face the challenge of trying to regain their card for the 2025 season through the Qualifying School.
For both, it is a path they have trodden before, and they will hope to once again navigate the six-round marathon that is the Final Stage next month at INFINITUM in Spain.
With five DP World Tour titles and 857 starts between them, the life of a tour professional has long been all they know. With that comes the highs and the lows.
Of the two, Morrison arrived at the Genesis Championship with the greatest possibility of playing his way into the top 114 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
But despite making the cut in South Korea, the Englishman remained 122nd and, having previously scrapped for his card successfully in 2017, 2018 and 2019, is now faced with a return to Qualifying School for the first time since 2013.
“A mixture of emotions,” said Morrison, who was unable to record a top ten for the first time since 2008 – prior to graduating from the Challenge Tour onto the DP World Tour.
“You come here with all the aspirations of being successful this week, but the course didn’t really play into my hands.
“I gave it my best as you always have to do. I’d been here before, got over the line before. This time I didn’t do it, but it is all good.”
Molinari, who memorably partnered his brother Francesco in Europe’s Ryder Cup win at Celtic Manor in 2010, was unable to record a top ten for the first time since 2020 when the season was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Italian made his most recent visit to the Qualifying School in 2016, securing his card that way for the second consecutive year, and he is prepared to give it another go after finishing 140th on the Rankings.
“It has been a bit difficult, I am not playing very well, but I gave it my best like I always do, and it wasn’t enough,” Molinari said. “It is golf, sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t.
“Obviously there were a few guys on the bubble, very close [to the 114 mark]. I was a bit behind, so I didn’t have much pressure to be honest. I needed half a miracle to keep my card.
“We are very privileged to do what we do, we play the best courses in the world, in the best conditions in the world so I don’t think you can complain too much whether you keep your card or lose it. Other jobs have more pressure than what we do.”
While seasoned professionals, Final Stage demands you to be at your best when it counts – it is very much the last chance saloon to earn full playing privileges for next year.
So, with that in mind, 39-year-old Morrison is aware a new phase in his career could well be approaching.
“15 years on Tour is a long time,” he added in an interview in the Green Room.
I think the next chapter is upon me which is pretty exciting and pretty scary at the same time - James Morrison
“This was my 430th event so I think the next chapter is upon me which is pretty exciting and pretty scary at the same time.
“I’d love to do some commentary stuff eventually but as they say I have got a face for radio, so who knows.”
While their presence would no doubt be a loss to the Tour, both players appear philosophical about what lies ahead.
For Molinari, who will be a Vice Captain at next year’s Ryder Cup for the second consecutive edition, a long season has left him drained emotionally and physically.
Holding back the tears, he said: “I am looking forward to spending some time at home with my kids and my wife. I am really missing them. It has been a long year.
“I go to Qualifying School and then I am looking forward to a lot of weeks at home with them. I want to spend some more time with them.”
