Thursday 16 November 2017 18:05, UK
Sam Horsfield cruised to a convincing victory in the Qualifying School Final Stage in Spain as 33 players earned their right to play on the European Tour next season.
Horsfield was in a class of his own in the gruelling six-round tournament at Lumine in Spain, and the young English talent fired a best-of-the-day 63 to post an impressive winning score of 27 under par - eight shots clear of the field.
The 21-year-old reeled off six birdies in a sparkling seven-hole stretch around the turn at the Lakes Course, and he closed with his eighth birdie of the round at the last.
"All these experiences add up," he said afterwards. "Hopefully I will have the opportunity to one day win on the European Tour or the PGA Tour and I can look back on days like today where I came out here and shot 63 in the final round, while having a lead, which is something that you can't teach and you have to learn by putting yourself in these positions.
"So next time when I have a lead in another tournament I can hopefully reflect on this memory. I am not sure I can say I envisaged being here when I first started this journey at First Stage but I feel as though my game has been good for a while and it really came together this week."
Horsfield dropped only five shots over 108 holes under the pressure of trying to win his European Tour card, and he soon received congratulations on social media from Ryder Cup legend Ian Poulter, who tweeted: "I'm extremely impressed just like I was 7 years ago with this young man. European Tour Q School is a daunting week. Many congratulations to now being employed and I hope you enjoy the new job. May you have a long and successful career mate."
Two-time BMW PGA champion Anders Hansen regained his card after the Danish veteran returned a 66, his fourth consecutive sub-70 round, to earn a share of second place with Jacques Kruyswijk, Andrea Pavan, Pontus Widegren, Jeff Winther and England's Charlie Ford.
Connor Syme also qualified with plenty to spare barely two months after turning professional following the Walker Cup, the highly-rated young Scot finishing on 17 under along with veteran Englishman Mark Foster.
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, a seven-time winner on the European Tour, enjoyed having fellow Spaniard and close friend Alvaro Quiros, who also has seven victories in his locker, on his bag as he regained his card with three shots in hand.
"I've been super-relaxed all week long but today I could feel that tiredness but I managed to hang in there and I guess experience was a key factor," he said. "Having Alvaro, my friend, on the bag helped a lot and we did it, so it's been an amazing week.
"My only goal now is to win another European Tour event so that I can be one ahead of Alvaro!"
The top 25 and ties all earned Category 17 membership for the European Tour next season, and English pair Ben Evans and Matthew Nixon were among the nine-way tied for 25th place when the final putt was holed.
Former European Tour winners to miss out included Johan Edfors, Tom Lewis, Julien Quesne and Gary Stal, who has slipped down the rankings since upstaging Martin Kaymer and Rory McIlroy to win in Abu Dhabi in 2015.
