Retaining his European Tour card for 2019 is now within reach for Jason Scrivener [above] after the 29-year-old stormed home with a round of six-under 65 in the KLM Open at The Dutch Golf Club in The Netherlands.
China’s Ashun Wu led from day one and completed his third European Tour win with a 67 in the final round, one shot clear of England’s Chris Wood.
The Sunday surge up the leaderboard could have major ramifications for Scrivener, whose 65 moved him up 24 spots to finish tied for 15th and earn 28,392 Race to Dubai points, moving him up to 111th in the standings. The top 110 players on the order of merit at the end of the year keep their cards for next year and Scrivener’s best finish since the Dubai Desert Classic in January has put him well and truly back in the frame.
Fellow Australian Adam Bland is the man currently keeping Scrivener out of the top 110, the South Australian moving up 21 spots in the final round with a four-under 67 to finish tied for 46th and earn 9,870 points, putting him just 492 points ahead of Scrivener.
Six birdies in his final round saw Wade Ormsby record a top-20 finish and solidify his place inside the top 50 of the Race to Dubai rankings while Lucas Herbert remains in the hunt to turn limited starts into a full card in 2019. Consecutive rounds of two-under 69 on the weekend was enough for the 22-year-old to finish tied for 28th and sit 103rd in the Race to Dubai rankings from just 15 starts to date.
Despite a disappointing double-bogey to commence his final round, Sam Brazel’s tie for 28th was his best result since the Oman Open in February with Queensland’s Andrew Dodt finishing alongside Bland at two-under for the week and tied for 46th.
• Dimitrios Papadatos has maintained his position inside the all-important top 15 on the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Ras Al Khaimah rankings thanks in no small part to his stunning final round at the Kazakhstan Open. Scotland’s Liam Johnston moved up to fourth on the moneylist courtesy of his two-shot win at Zhailjau Golf Resort but, fuelled by a front nine of 31, Papadatos was able to climb 17 positions on the leaderboard to finish tied for 37th and remain 15th on the moneylist. The only other Australian in the field at Kazakhstan, Jack Munro, did not qualify for the weekend.
Aaron Baddeley, Curtis Luck walk US PGA Tour tightrope
Two late birdies may have been enough to secure Curtis Luck [above] a 2019 US PGA Tour card, but Aaron Baddeley will have to wait until after the Web .com Tour Championship to learn his fate.
The top 25 finishers from the culmination of the four-event Web .com Tour Finals Series earn a ticket to the big time next season with Aussies Cameron Davis and Matt Jones already safely ensconced in the top 25.
The Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho threw a number of Aussie contenders into the frame but Sunday was not kind to a number of players, Brett Drewitt falling from inside the top 10 through 54 holes to a tie for 43rd with a final round of three-over 74 – bogeys at 17 and 18 meaning he improved just two spots from 66th in the Web .com Finals Series standings to 64th.
Starting the week in 12th position, Luck was facing the prospect of needing a big finish at the Tour Championship to earn full status on the PGA Tour but timely birdies at 16 and 17 may prove to be enough. Projected to be 19th in the Finals Series standings midway through his round, Luck reached the par-5 16th in two and two-putted for birdie and then backed that up with a second at the par-3 17th to rescue his round.
After three events of the Finals Series Luck has won $41,587, which would have been enough to earn one of the 25 PGA Tour cards up for grabs last year. Early predictions were that Luck’s standing of 16th in the rankings should hold up even after the Tour Championship, but there’s no doubt the West Australian will want to finish strongly to take any extraordinary circumstances out of the equation.
The task is not quite so simple for Baddeley, who moved up three places to be 20th heading into the Tour Championship. Tied for 11th entering the final round of the Boise Open, Baddeley had three birdies in his opening five holes but was unable to maintain such a heady pace, bogeys at four, nine and 17 resulting in a one-under 70 and a tie for 17th.
Although he made a significant move up the leaderboard with a final round of 67, Cameron Percy slipped four places to be 44th heading into the Tour Championship while Rhein Gibson (56th), John Senden (77th) and Stuart Appleby (87th) would essentially need to win the season finale to earn full status for 2019.
• Brett Coletta’s quest for a Web .com Tour card via the Mackenzie Tour in Canada has seen him gain automatic exemption into the second stage of Web .com Tour Qualifying School after the Freedom 55 Financial Championship. Tied for fifth last start, Coletta has now carded eight consecutive rounds in the 60s, shooting 68-66-67-67 to finish the week tied for 12th and the year-end moneylist in 22nd position. The only other Australian in the field, Ruben Sondjaja, was tied for 52nd.
Harwood leads Scottish Open charge
Mike Harwood [above] led the Aussie charge at the Scottish Senior Open but will have left Craigielaw Golf Club with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Starting the final round eyeing off a top-10 finish, Harwood made four bogeys in the space of six holes in his final nine holes to end the week five-over and tied for 22nd.
The first home winner of the Scottish Senior Open in more than a decade, Gary Orr described the Sunday conditions as “brutal” as he held on to win by a shot from England’s Paul Streeter at four-under par for the three rounds.
Starting the tournament with two birdies in his opening three holes, Harwood made a positive start with a birdie at his first hole on Sunday but dropped shots at the third and fourth holes to be one-over for his round. A birdie at the par-3 sixth saw him make the turn square with the card, although three consecutive bogeys from the 12th hole and a fourth at the 17th prevented the 59-year-old from finishing higher on the leaderboard.
Five bogeys and a double-bogey led to a disappointing final round of 77 for Peter Fowler, who finished tied for 37th alongside countryman Peter O’Malley, who handled the difficult conditions better than most with a one-over par final round of 72.
• Victorian David McKenzie used a late flurry to record his best Champions Tour finish in America since March, tying for 17th at the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Sitting inside the top 10 beginning the final round, McKenzie lost ground to the field with dropped shots at the seventh, ninth and 11th holes but came back to life in spectacular fashion. A birdie at the par-4 12th was followed by an eagle at the par-5 13th and another birdie at the par-4 14th to bring his round to one-under in the space of three holes. A bogey at the last was not how he was hoping to end the week as McKenzie finished seven shots behind Englishman Paul Broadhurst.
