Francesco Laporta went from having a good chance of earning a European Tour card with a few events of the season left to emphatically winning the Road to Mallorca Rankings thanks to a stunning end to the year.
The 29-year-old had four top ten finishes to his name, in addition to a runner-up spot after losing in a play-off to Connor Syme at the season-opening Turkish Airlines Challenge, as he teed it up at the Italian Open on a national invite in October.
Laporta opted to skip the Stone Irish Challenge and instead accepted the invite to play at Olgiata Golf Club, a decision that proved to be the catalyst for an incredible final month of the season.
He finished tied seventh in Rome – the low-Italian – and then jumped immediately on a flight to China for the Hainan Open.
The Puglia native earned his first Challenge Tour victory on the Chinese island, which included a sensational eight under par third round of 64, to leap to the top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings with two events left.
He then bounced back from an opening one over par round of 73 at the Foshan Open to fire three rounds in the 60s to finish in a tie for 14th place, but he relinquished top spot to long-time leader and two-time winner Calum Hill.
The top 45 players arrived at Club de Golf Alcanada with the race for top spot as alive as ever, but Laporta ultimately proved to be a worthy winner by going wire-to-wire in tough conditions to pick up his second win in three starts and go into 2020 as the Road to Mallorca Number One.
The Italian missed just one cut in his final 17 starts of the 2019 campaign which shows both the importance of momentum and the level of Laporta’s talent.
