Josh Geary has rocketed up the leaderboard in Final Stage European Tour Qualifying to sit T17 with a round to go.  The top 25 players get a European Tour Card for 2018, so Josh has a great opportunity to join Ryan Fox as our second New Zealand player on this Tour.


Ryan is elsewhere engaged in Dubai in the finale of the 2017 European Tour year: the DP World Tour Championship, being played on the formidable Earth Course.  Also in the finale for her Tour, Lydia Ko tees it up in the CME Group Tour Championship in Florida, with a mathematical chance of taking out the Race to the CME Globe title for 2017, and the $US 1.0 million bonus that goes with it.


Closer to home, a strong New Zealand contingent lines up for the NSW Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia.


Danny Lee is in action again on the PGA Tour in the last regular event of calendar 2017, the RSM Classic in Georgia.


European Tour Qualifying


After opening with three par rounds on the two Lumine courses in Spain, which saw him languishing in the middle of the 156 man field and in danger of missing the cut, Josh Geary has hit the go button with rounds of 67 and 64 to take him to -11 for the tournament, tied 17th.  The last round will be super tense, with -11 currently being the number for a 2018 card, but with plenty of players lurking just behind.  Geary though seems to have momentum in his favour, particularly on the Lumine Lakes Course where he has piled up 12 birdies in the last two rounds, offset by only a single bogey.


The last round is being played on the Lakes Course: best of luck Josh – it’s been a long road to here in more ways than one, and we hope you finish it off by breaking through to the European Tour.


NSW Open


This is the first of three tournaments which make up the climax to the 2017 PGA Tour of Australasia.  Next week sees the Australian Open at the Australian Golf Club in Sydney, followed by the PGA Championship at Royal Pines.


The NSW Open is being played at Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club in Luddenham, NSW, for a purse of $A 400,000.  The NZ professionals in the field are Kieran Muir, Brad Shilton, Harry Bateman, Mark Brown, Gareth Paddison, Josh Munn, Luke Toomey, Daniel Pearce and Michael Long, and they will be joined by amateurs Daniel Hillier, Kerry Mountcastle and Mark Hutson.


Muir, Bateman, Brown and Paddison all have good form to bring to this based on their recent results on this Tour and in Japan.  Daniel Pearce also has a case to make, having had a short break after his recent Charles Tour victory in New Plymouth.  The amateurs may also be prominent after showing up well in the Asia Pacific Championship at Royal Wellington a couple of weeks ago.


There’s plenty to play for, with slots in the Open and PGA up for grabs, as well as the chance to advance on the all important OOM.  You can follow scoring at www.pga.org.au


 


 


DP World Tour Championship, Dubai


The grand finale of the 2017 European Tour is on the Greg Norman designed Earth Course at Jumeirah Estates, Dubai.  Measuring 7,000 metres at sea level, it will clearly be a stern examination, featuring 7 par 4s in excess of 400 metres, a 223 metre par 3, and four par 5s, the shortest of which is 523 metres.


It shouldn’t faze Ryan Fox, who was a strong contender for Rookie of the Year on the 2017 Tour, but was edged by Jon Rahm who took out the Sir Henry Cotton Trophy.  Ryan may not be in contention for the Race to Dubai – likely to be fought out by Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood – but will be keen to get his share of the $US 8.0 million on offer, to be shared out amongst the 60 players in this elite field.


Ryan is paired with Joost Luiten (Netherlands) in Round 1.


Coverage is on SS 53 from 9.00pm tonight.


CME Group Tour Championship


Lydia Ko took this tournament out in 2014, as well as the bonus money for the Race to the CME Globe.  She would dearly love to do that again, and from her current 12# ranking in the Race she is a slim chance to climb to the top.  She would firstly need to win the tournament, and secondly her rivals would need to have poor finishes for this to happen, especially new World 1# Shanshan Feng.


Lydia is the current course record holder at Tiburon GC in Naples, Florida, with a 62 set last year.  Another one of those would do no harm at all.


Lydia plays Round 1 with Stacy Lewis and Anna Nordqvist: coverage is on SS 53 from 7.00 Friday morning.


PGA Tour


The RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia, is the last regular four round event on the PGA Tour this year.  The tournament is played for a purse of $US 6.2 million on the two courses (Seaside and Plantation) at Sea Island GC, and Danny will tee it up alongside Ted Potter Jr and Tommy (“Two Gloves”) Gainey, who played in the 2010 NZ PGA Championship at Clearwater, Christchurch.  If Danny can play like he finished last week, he could have every chance against a weakfish field by normal PGA Tour standards.


Coverage is on SS 52 from 7.30am Friday, and through the weekend.


Other News


We omitted to mention that Tae Koh has also made it through to Japan Tour Final Stage Qualifying, finishing on the same score as Harry Bateman (-9) to progress to the December finals.


Michael Hendry is taking a week off after his excellent result last week, which moved him up 15 slots in the official World Golf Rankings: the Dunlop Phoenix Open was originally in his schedule, but he will now be focusing on the Australian Open and PGA Championship.  A win in the latter – which is co-sanctioned with the European Tour – would give Michael playing privileges on that Tour in 2018.


Fraser Wilkin is again the sole New Zealander in China this week, where he plays in the Hunan Taohuayuan Open starting today.


World Golf Rankings


                                       Current                 End 2016


Danny Lee                       105                            67


Ryan Fox                          120                          123


Michael Hendry              125                          154


Tim Wilkinson                 465                          382


Daniel Pearce                  571                          675


Ben Campbell                  623                        1105


Gareth Paddison             798                        1117


Steven Alker                    934                          568


Josh Geary                       947                          523


Harry Bateman              1030                       1838