The European Challenge Tour is back and the 2021 Road to Mallorca gets under way with the Limpopo Championship this week, the first of three co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour.
Here are five things you need to know ahead of the action getting under way on Thursday…
Challenge Tour x Sunshine Tour
The Challenge Tour made its maiden voyage to South Africa for three co-sanctioned events in 2020 and it returns for a second time this week. The season-opening Limpopo Championship, the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open and the Dimension Data Pro-Am will start this year’s Road to Mallorca after being postponed from February due to travel difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fields for all three events will be split evenly between the Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour, with any points earned counting in full to the respective Tour Rankings.
Looking for the three-peat
Euphoria Golf Club is a venue South African JC Ritchie knows well. The 27-year-old won his fourth Sunshine Tour title at the 2019 Limpopo Championship when he defeated England’s Steve Surry in a play-off, before successfully defending his title last year, earning full Challenge Tour status in the process. Ritchie posted rounds of 66-69-67-67 to win by two shots from countryman Wilco Nienaber and he will tee it up this week in a bid for a hat-trick.
20 spots available
The players teeing it up in South Africa will be looking to make a flying start to the Road to Mallorca Rankings race. Last year, the top five on the Rankings earned additional playing privileges on the European Tour in 2021 due to the shortened season caused by the pandemic, but graduation is back this year – in full. The top 20 on the Road to Mallorca Rankings at the end of the season will earn full playing rights on the European Tour in 2022 and will have the opportunity to tee it up alongside some of the world’s best players.
On your marks…
Although players are presented with plenty of chances to make their mark on the Road to Mallorca throughout the year, the importance of a fast start cannot be underestimated. In each of the last three full seasons, the player winning the opening event of the year has gone on to graduate to the European Tour at the end of the season. Connor Syme won the season-opening Turkish Airlines Challenge in 2019 before going on to earn his card in the following November, while 2018 graduate Lorenzo Gagli and 2017 graduate Aaron Rai both won the Kenya Open, the first event of the season, in the two years prior.
The start of a long run
It has been five months since the Challenge Tour Grand Final, the last event on the 2020 Road to Mallorca, but this week marks the beginning of a stretch of events which will more than make up for lost time. The Limpopo Championship is the first of 14 successive events on the Road to Mallorca, which means players will have to carefully manage their schedules to ensure they continue to perform at a high level. Following the three South African events, the Road to Mallorca travels to Sweden, the Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Austria and Italy before the next break in the schedule at the beginning of August.
