Matt Cooper previews the European Tour's Final Stage of Q School - golf's last-chance saloon.
Matt Cooper previews the European Tour's Final Stage of Q School - golf's last-chance saloon
Tour golf can be rewarding, glamorous and a lot of fun. It can also be cruel - very cruel.
Two and a half years ago Nick Dougherty calmly withstood a rampant Rafa Echenique to win the 2009 BMW International at Eichenried, for both men it was the best result of their careers and apparently a hint of exciting times ahead.
And yet this week? This week the pair of them will be at PGA Catalunya in Spain, competing in the final stage of European Tour Qualifying School, desperately playing for their short-term golfing lives.
On that Sunday in June 2009 Englishman Dougherty closed with a round of 64 and then said: "It's great to be back where I feel I belong." Since then he has played in 70 tournaments and never once made the top ten; he has made just two cuts in his last 38 starts.
It would be difficult to watch any golfer collapse as he has, but Dougherty's pain has reverberated around the European Tour because few players are better liked. If he were to regain his card this week it would probably count as the most popular "win" of the year.
Whilst the Argentinean Echenique has never won on Tour, the way he closed with a spectacular 62 at Eichenried suggested it would not be long - he even holed out from the fairway for a closing albatross two that Sunday.
He was second at last year's Scandinavian Masters but has not made the top ten again since. A smart graduate of the 2006 Challenge Tour, like Dougherty, he needs to reverse long-term form to avoid a return there next season.
Those two players are not, of course, the only ones all too aware of the snakes and ladders nature of professional golf. Another is Australia's
Dan Gaunt.
His 2010 journey was nothing short of inspirational. At the end of March he was selling Mars bars and tee pegs in a pro shop, saving up for his entry to Pro66 Tour 18-hole events. He won the first he entered at the end of April, used the prize money to enter a Europro Tour event, won that too and added a couple more in the next few weeks. Because he was topping the money list, he earned a start on the Challenge Tour (in the English Challenge) and, remarkably, he won that, eventually finishing the Challenge Tour season with a full European Tour card.
The year ended in even finer fashion - eight months after flogging chocolate bars in the pro shop he finished third in the Australian Masters, one stroke ahead of some bloke called Tiger Woods. It was fairytale stuff, but reality bites - if Gaunt doesn't get his card it'll be a case of two steps forward one step back.
It's an old story and typical of the brutal nature of Tour golf - whilst the big boys of the European Tour play for rich pickings in Dubai, the hopefuls scrap for their 2012 future. Here's a quick guide to a few more players in the field, with a couple of suggestions of players worth backing with hard cash.
Another grinder?
Last year's Q School winner was Simon Wakefield, a golfer whose career has been marked by dogged determination and resilience rather than wins and column inches. If there is to be a similar winner this year it could be either Sweden's
Mikael Lundberg (50/1) or England's
Andrew Marshall (50/1). Lundberg has twice won the Russian Open at Moscow CC, a venue that bears a certain resemblance to Catalunya and he was second at another similar track (Prosper GC) at the Czech Open in August. Marshall has found some form late in the season, culminating in a fast finishing third at the Challenge Tour Grand Final
Course specialists
Wakefield returns to Q School despite a second placed finish in Austria just a few months ago and is
28/1 with Sky Bet to defend his title. That seems unlikely to happen. Others with good course form include Denmark's Andreas Harto, a player many tipped as a future star after his exploits on the Challenge Tour last year and who was eighth last year (40/1 and 5/2 to be top Dane). Australia's Wade Ormsby has twice played well on the course finishing second and 25th (125/1), and Englishman
Sam Hutsby (66/1) was second two years ago and has a strong record in Spain.
The late entries
With 18 holes to play of the Second Stage, Denmark's Joachim Hansen (250/1) and England's James Robinson (200/1) were apparently without any hope of progressing. At which point they both went berserk, shooting superb 10-under-par rounds - 62 for Hansen at Costa Ballena and 63 for Robinson at La Manga. Can they capitalise on the opportunity their brilliance has earned?
The man with one name
His name is Siddikur
(50/1 with Sky Bet). No more, no less. The Asian Tour can accommodate that but the administrators (or probably the databases) of the European and PGA Tours cannot so he becomes Mohammed Siddikur when he plays on them. But the young Bangladeshi is a seriously good golfer - a winner in Asia, fifth in a Challenge Tour event this year, 11th on a PGA Asian tourney last season and 18th at the European Masters. I hope he makes it. With one name.
French flair
In last week's Stage Two preview I mentioned Frenchman Michael Lorenzo-Vera
(66/1 and 5/1 to be top Frenchman) - a seriously talented player but a man about whom a French journalist friend of mine once memorably said, "He is - how you say? - hot of the head." Well, last week he started with a round of 76 which left him almost last in his field and it is hard to believe the head was not a bit hot. But rounds of 69-64-70 thereafter ensured relatively safe progress. Can he maintain that improving form? He has been 24th at this venue in the Open de Espana and was seventh after three rounds of the 2009 Q School here.
TIPS:
Okay, those guys have good stories and some hope of winning a card, but where should the money go? Swede Oskar Henningsson won the first Q School played at Catalunya but the last two have seen more experienced players thrive, in particular the winners Simon Khan and Wakefield. Bearing that in mind, two men stand out at the Sky Bet prices.
Gary Orr
The 44-year-old Scot was Rookie of the Year in 1993 and a two-time winner in 2000, but back injury in recent years has limited his opportunities. There is plenty in his favour this week however. First up he's played PGA Catalunya three times and always done well - 14th and 6th back in 1999 and 2000, 42nd at Q School two years ago. He also has both a fine record on the Iberian Peninsula and a notable preference for tree-lined course - even his most recent European Tour top five finish was on one, at Hilversum in the Dutch Open in August. He's maintained the ability to hit low rounds in recent weeks and I think a return to those trees might suit him.
Back him each way at 33/1.
Martin Erlandsson
After five solid years on the main tour 37-year-old Erlandsson began to struggle for form, but in the last few months of 2011 he has rediscovered some consistency, making the top 15 in nine of his last 15 starts. Like Orr he plays well amongst the trees and in Spain, I learned at Challenge Tour Grand Final that he's motivated to get back on the main tour and
I think 100/1 offers good each way value (he's also 8/1 to be top Swede) .
