The Apulia San Domenico Grand Final has been nominated as the European Challenge Tour’s Flagship Event, meaning the winner of this year’s tournament will receive a minimum of 16 Official World Golf Ranking points for the first time in Challenge Tour history.
The measure was approved by the Governing Board of the Official World Golf Ranking during its meeting at The Open Championship, which was won by former Challenge Tour player Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa.
The move brings the Challenge Tour into line with other Tours around the world, including The European and US PGA Tours, which have as their respective Flagship Events the BMW PGA Championship and The Players Championship.
Additionally, the Nationwide Tour Championship is the nominated Flagship Event of the Nationwide Tour, the American equivalent of the Challenge Tour, whilst the PGA Tour of Australasia, the Japan Golf Tour and the Sunshine Tour in South Africa have their National Opens as their Flagship Events.
Alain de Soultrait, Director of the Challenge Tour, said: “This is yet another sign of the Challenge Tour’s growing strength and importance in the world game, so we are absolutely delighted with the Governing Board’s decision. With so much at stake the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final is a very tough event to win, so the champion fully deserves to receive the 16 World Ranking points now available. We can now look ahead to this year’s tournament with an even greater sense of anticipation than usual.”
The strength and importance of the Challenge Tour was underlined last year by the meteoric rise of Rankings winner Edoardo Molinari of Italy, who started 2009 in 653rd place in the Official World Golf Ranking, but ended the year in 49th place to gain entry into this year’s Major Championships.
Following his victory at The Barclays Scottish Open and his third place finish at last week’s Nordea Scandinavian Masters, the Italian is now up to a career-high position of 17th in the World Ranking.
This year the €300,000 Apulia San Domenico Grand Final, which is celebrating its 16th edition, returns to San Domenico Golf in Puglia, Italy, the host venue for the past six seasons.
Previous winners include Ireland’s Peter Lawrie (2002) and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (2000), whilst more recently Scotland’s Peter Whiteford (2009), Argentina’s Tano Goya (2008) and France’s Michael Lorenzo-Vera (2007) have all lifted the trophy.
