Wilson clinches second success of season on Challenge Tour

Four years after winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Oliver Wilson is on course to regain the European Tour card he lost at the end of the 2016 season, writes Martin Dempster.

The Englishman is into the top 15 in the Challenge Tour’s Road to Ras Al Khaimah rankings after claiming his second success of the season on the second-tier circuit. Holding off a chasing pack that included Scottish duo Robert Macintyre and Calum Hill, Wilson won the Monaghan Irish Challenge by two shots at Concra Wood, adding to his victory in the Swedish Challenge in August.

“I’m feeling pretty pumped after that,” said the 38-yearold after signing off with a three-under 69 for a 12-underpar 276 total at the Co Monaghan course. “It was hard work today and a proper grind duetostrongcross-windseverywhere. This course is such a good test that I had to keep hitting good shots and I managed to do that, and it wasn’t too stressful coming up the last.”

Macintyre finished joint fourth on seven-under with Hill, a winner in Ireland earlier in the season, two shots further back in joint sixth as the pair cemented their positions in the top 45 on the money-list and stay on course for the season-ending Grand Final in Ras Al Khaimah.

England had to settle for a share of second place in the finals of the UL International Crown as South Korea won on home turf in Incheon. Korea won five of the eight points available in the concluding singles session.