There are only 72 holes left to play before the European Challenge Tour season closes the curtain on another year — so little remaining, yet so much still to play for.
In the final Road to Ras Al Khaimah update, we take a look back at the developing storylines as the top 45 players prepare for the mad dash to the finish line where 15 European Tour cards are handed out.
Hold on
The 2018 Challenge Tour International Schedule began all the way back in March, 27 tournaments ago, when the Barclays Kenya Open celebrated its 50thanniversary. Beginning his ninth season on the Challenge Tour, Lorenzo Gagli outlasted Jens Fahrbring in a play-off to claim his debut win on Europe’s top developmental circuit.
The Italian backed up the triumph with a tied second place finish in his very next start, the Turkish Airlines Challenge, as he flew out to a sizeable lead in the Rankings. However, that lead, and Gagli’s reign at the top was ended by Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen, who has owned the Number One spot ever since.
As more and more players started racking up wins and top ten finishes, Gagli has slowly slipped down the season-long points race. Now the 33 year old, who currently occupies the 11thspot in the Rankings, will have to dig in and produce a strong result at the Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final if he wants to earn a European Tour card for next year.
The battle for Number One
The two most recent winners on Tour, Victor Perez and Kalle Samooja, have risen to the occasion at the most critical time of year and now occupy second and third in the Rankings respectively. The duo who made their move during the recent ‘Chinese swing’ are two of eight players in total who still have a mathematical chance of finishing first on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah and winning the accompanying €30,000 bonus.
While much of the Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final will focus on the battle for the top 15, you can be sure there will also be a hotly contested race for that number one spot.
The eight players who can still come out on top are Hansen, who has led the Rankings since his home-soil victory on July 1 at the Made in Denmark Challenge presented by Ejner Hessel, Frenchman Perez, Finland’s Samooja, Sebastian Soderberg of Sweden, Englishman Jack Singh Brar, Finn Kim Koivu, Stuart Manley from Wales and Scotland’s Grant Forrest.
It’s all to play for
When Robert MacIntyre holed his monstrous 80-foot putt on the 72ndhole of the Foshan Open, he secured a berth inside the top 15 for the first time this year, along with American Sean Crocker, who recorded his fourth third place finish of the season after finding the podium in back-to-back weeks in China.
But with every newcomer who rises up the Rankings, there is a counterpart who gets bumped down. Portugal’s Pedro Figueiredo and Australia’s Dimitrios Papadatos have spent nearly the entire season inside the top 15 on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah, and along with Germany’s Marcel Schneider and two-time winner this year Oliver Wilson, now find themselves on the outside looking in. Things are not over though. With a field limited to 45 players and a massive €420,000 prize fund on offer, the only certainty is the jockeying for European Tour playing privileges is far from finished.
