Time is running out for European Challenge Tour players to cement a spot in the top 15 and with only three events remaining before the Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final, the weekly shuffling of the coveted top 15 is beginning to drive home the importance of a full season’s performance.
If the Road to Ras Al Khaimah ended today, the European Tour would be gaining a diverse group of 15 graduates representing 11 different nationalities.
Denmark, Sweden, Wales, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia and Germany would all be sending citizens to compete at golf’s highest level.
Finland would add two more to their European Tour contingent, while England would see a pair of players join the two who have already moved up this year — Richard McEvoy who won the Porsche European Open and Tom Lewis who triumphed at last week’s Portugal Masters.
The home of golf stands as the biggest beneficiary right now, as Scottish golf stands poised for an injection of three new flag-bearers onto the big stage.
That is, however, if the Road to Ras Al Khaimah stopped right now. There is still plenty of golf to be played, and with the final event on European soil kicking-off next week, the door is still open for several golfers to alter the trajectory of the Rankings.
Currently, no Frenchmen grace the top 15, but a duo of Francophones — both of whom will be looking for inspiration when they attend The Ryder Cup in Paris this weekend — have been storming up the Rankings and now within touching distance of their desired final destination.
After the tenth event on the 2018 Challenge Tour International Schedule, which was the first of four in France, Romaine Langasque found himself ranked 110thon the Road to Ras Al Khaimah. Now, on the heels of a tied-fifth place finish at the Kazakhstan Open and a win at the final French tournament, the Hopps Open de Provence, he finds himself in-form and in 17thspot.
At the same time Langasque was outside the top 100, his fellow countryman Victor Perez was stuck in neutral, treading water and occupying 37thspot.
A winner on the Challenge Tour in 2017, Perez is now surging in the second half of the season. In his last five starts, he has five consecutive top 15 finishes and has taken a lead into the final day twice. Occupying the spot immediately behind Langasque on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah, it should not come as a surprise if at least one Frenchman moves to the European Tour next year.
Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach, Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland, Norweigen Eirik Tage Johansen, South Korean Minkyu Kim, Chile’s Nico Geyger and Dutchman Daan Huizing are all inside the top 30 on the season-long points race.
It may be impossible to know how many of them will be in possession of a European Tour card when the final putt drops at the Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final but one thing is certain: there will not be room for them all.
