It’s the Final countdown on the European Challenge Tour this week as players target a strong performance in the Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge – the penultimate event of the season – to secure a place in the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final.
Francesco Laporta is more aware of this fact than most. With just 45 players competing in Muscat next week, the Italian arrived at Al Hamra Golf Club in 46th spot in the Road to Oman Rankings, just 32 points outside the qualifying mark for the last tournament of 2017.
The season started well for the 27 year old, with a tie for third place at the curtain-raising Barclays Kenya Open, and despite consistency throughout the year – he has missed only five cuts in 19 events – he is in need of one more strong showing if he is to be part of the season finale.
“I need a good week for sure,” he said. “Unfortunately I missed the cut last week – it was pretty important for me and I just dropped a shot on the last hole to miss it. But that’s golf.
“Now it’s another week, I’m feeling good, I have my caddie back with me, but it’s a very important week for me to try to get to Oman.
“There is pressure on me, but I like to think I’ve already had a good year. From where I started, without a category, for me the most important thing was to get a full category for next year, so it’s already been a success in that regard.
“If I can get a good finish here and get into the top 45 and into the Grand Final, that is obviously an even better thing, but I don’t want to think too much about it, I’m just trying to play my best golf and see what happens.”
Ultimately it is not the top 45 that matter but the top 15, all of whom will become European Tour members following the conclusion of the Grand Final.
With so many points on offer in the final fortnight of the year, a late charge towards the top of the Rankings is a live possibility, but you have got to be in it to win it, so Laporta’s initial concern is on playing well enough in Ras Al Khaimah, then seeing where that takes him.
“The top 15 is not impossible,” he said. “I spoke to Erik van Rooyen about it when we were travelling here – he’s already got his card secured but I told him that if I get a top three here, top three in Oman, then we will be travelling together again next year.
“I’m trying to think positive all the time but I don’t want to think too much about the score, the top 15, the top 45. I just want to try to play golf and enjoy my time out here.
“I played pretty well at the start of the season and the last five or six tournaments I didn’t play my best golf. Apart from last week I made every cut, I just didn’t finish the week too well.
“I’ve cost myself a lot of shots with the driver, which at the start of the year was my best club, and I’ve been putting a lot better in the second half of the season but my long and short game weren’t feeling the best.
“Now I’m feeling good. The weather is perfect, the course is perfect, I love the course – it sets up perfectly for me I think.
“It’s very fair and if you play well off the tee you make it a lot easier. The greens are quite small, if you miss them it can be difficult to get up and down because there’s lots of grain outside the green, but if you play well you can score low.”
