As Sergio Garcia rightly took the headlines and the glory at a memorable Masters Tournament, the year’s first Major Championship was also notable for an extremely strong showing from the large former European Challenge Tour contingent.
Justin Rose led the charge at Augusta National as his bid to add a Green Jacket to his U.S. Open and Olympic gold medal fell agonisingly short, but a second runner-up finish in three seasons reaffirmed the Englishman as one of the great competitors in the modern game.
Just as noteworthy as 1999 alumnus Rose was the performance on debut of Thomas Pieters, who spent the second half of 2013 on the Challenge Tour after turning professional.
The Belgian gave notice of his ability to perform on the biggest stages when starring at The Ryder Cup last year and was similarly inspired over the weekend in Georgia, a closing round of 68 taking the 25 year old into a tie for fourth place.
Augusta is notoriously unforgiving to rookies, with just one winner on their first visit in the last 81 years, but, aside from Jordan Spieth’s second place in 2014, Pieters’ maiden outing in Bobby Jones’ prestigious tournament ranks as one of the best debut performances in recent memory.
Behind Rose and Pieters were a plethora of Challenge Tour alumni – of the 17 players in the field who owed at least part of their development to the tour, 11 made the cut.
Brooks Koepka, a four-time Challenge Tour winner, went slightly under the radar as two under par rounds over the weekend earned him a share of 11thplace, one shot ahead of 2006 graduate Martin Kaymer.
Branden Grace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Byeong Hun An, Søren Kjeldsen, Louis Oosthuizen, Ross Fisher and Bernd Wiesberger completed the Challenge Tour cut-makers, another demonstration of the high quality and talent emerging from the Road to Oman every year.
