Scots fab four join golf’s top table
SCOTTISH golf received a welcome boost yesterday as four tartan hopefuls secured full status on the top tour at the Challenge Tour Grand final in the United Arab Emirates.
Robert MacIntyre of Oban led the way with a sixth-placed finish at Ras Al Khaimah to earn enough money to gatecrash the 15 who earned their full European Tour cards. Joining him are North Berwick’s Grant Forrest and Liam Johnston of Dumfries, who had already secured their status before the final event, and Aberdeen’s David Law, who did just enough to squeeze through at 14th in the standings.
The results mean there will be at least nine Scots on the European Tour in the 2019 season. They will join Russell Knox, Stephen Gallacher, Scott Jamieson, David Drysdale and Richie Ramsay after they retained their cards.
Connor Syme, Marc Warren and Bradley Neil lost theirs but will have a chance to regain them at the European Tour’s qualifying school over the coming weeks, along with a handful of other Scots.
Spanish sensation Adri Arnaus took the honours on the day as his final-round 69 secured a wire-to-wire victory, while Denmark’s Joachim Hansen held on to take the overall Order of Merit title.
Meanwhile, Justin Rose suffered a costly concentration lapse in Antalya as he seeks to retain his Turkish Airlines Open title and regain his world No1 ranking.
Rose began yesterday’s third round with a twoshot lead, but ended it three behind China’s Li Haotong after hitting three balls into the water in the space of nine holes in an untidy 69.
Li’s flawless 63 gave the 23-year-old a 17-underpar total of 196 and a three-shot lead over Rose and France’s Alexander Levy.