Road to Oman - the final countdown

The Road to Oman enters its final stretch this week with the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final with places in the top 16 – and a golden ticket to the European Tour – still up for grabs and the race for the Rankings top spot hotting up.

Drama is guaranteed at the stunning Al Mouj Golf this week, and here is all you need to know ahead of the last tournament of the European Challenge Tour season.

Smith back in the driving seat

Fittingly, Jordan Smith arrives in Muscat as the Number One player on this year’s Road to Oman having regained top spot with victory at the Ras Al Khaimah 2016 Golf Challenge on Saturday.

The Englishman has been the most consistent player on the Challenge Tour this season, leading the Rankings for 15 of the 26 weeks and following up his early victory in Egypt with six further top tens before his triumph in the United Arab Emirates.

Mathematically Smith has three challengers for the Number One position this week, with Ryan Fox, Alexander Knappe and Sam Walker all within range, but the reality is probably closer to a two-horse race, as both Fox and Walker would need to win the tournament and hope for Smith to finish outside the top 14 – by no means an impossibility.

In all likelihood, though, it is Knappe, also with two wins to his name this year, who will provide the main competition – he is 32,000 points behind Smith, so would need a top two finish to have a chance of doing so.

Sweet 16 too close to call

This has been the most competitive Challenge Tour season in memory, and it sets up an incredible conclusion to the year in Oman this week.

Due to a change in the regulations allowing amateurs to earn Ranking points – which Road to Oman Number Nine Romain Langasque did with a runner-up finish in Kenya before he turned professional – 16 players will graduate, with anyone earning points as an amateur counting in addition to the usual top 15 – the same logic applies to the field size being 46 this week.

The first 20 tournaments of the Road to Oman each had a different winner, leading to a wider distribution of points compared to previous years, where one or two standout individuals took the lion’s share.

As a result, the number of points required to earn a European Tour card will be an all-time high this year, with Pep Angles in the 16^thand final position already having amassed almost 88,000 points and, even with a last place in Oman, certain to top 90,000 and beat the previous high of 89,358 for the 15^thspot in 2008.

The top ten, all comfortably past the 100,000 points barrier, will be confident they have done enough, with Marcus Armitage and José-Filipe Lima in 11^thand 12^thalso looking good for the 2017 Race to Dubai.

However, below them there will be some nervous leaderboard-watchers, with just 7,000 points separating Damien Perrier in 13^thfrom Aaron Rai in 17^th.

With so many points on offer, and a small field, even sixth place will earn 16,000 points – enough to make a serious late surge, and, with nine tournament winners from this season all outside the top 16, plenty of quality players who know how to deliver under pressure.

Even the last man in the field, Jordi Garcia Pinto, is in with a shot of European Tour graduation – the Spaniard would have to win this week to do so, but it shows how there is still everything to play for in a week where heroes will be made.