Mav's European & Challenge Tour Weekly Edition - Singapore Open & Challenge tour Round up

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Firstly to the week passed and there’s much to discuss what with the culmination of a years golf on the Challenge Tour in San Domenico.

Then there was Martin Kaymers back 9 on Sunday that took apart Sheshan and saw him crowned WGC HSBC Champions winner, on the back of a none to stellar year by his standards. So I’ll start as usual with the ET and work my way through a winding road from there.

Much is being made on the ET website of the RTD being a closer run thing now between Luke and Rory. Yet they’ve clearly overlooked the fact that Kaymer is now ahead of Rory in the RTD standings, Meaning #1Luke, #Kaymer and #3 Rory. So seems they need to look at their own money list and clear things up for the fans.

Despite his blistering back nine, I can’t help think the HSBC what somewhat of an anti-climax, what with Freddie Jac doing the hard work the first 3 days he simply stood still on Sunday and allowed Kaymer to breeze past. No-one else really challenged either, meaning it became somewhat a procession for MK.

Only 1 US player in amongst it (of sorts) Mahan with a decent week, but for me the story of the day was Casey showing a return to form with some sublime pitching and showing what those large forearms can do to dig the ball out of the cabbage. Now his divorce is finalised lets hope we see a return to the top 10 OGWR and a Ryder appearance.

So to this weeks offering:-

The Barclays Singapore Open:

1.Much being made of by the ET that GMac is the man to watch out for now he’s returned to form. Does one good event mean he has returned to form and should be favourite? Not in my mind…

2.This will be the 3rd consecutive year that this is officially a co-sanctioned event between the ET and Asian Tour

3.It’s also the 2nd consecutive year that a field of 204 players will compete on both The Serapong and The Tanjong courses. Play will be on both courses for the first two days and once the cut is made after 36 holes they will compete solely on The Serapong at the weekend.

4.Notables in the field this week that we don’t usually see this side of the US are: Gmac,Els, Rose, Karlsson, Lee, Villegas, Goosen, Kim, Overton and YE Yang

5.So whilst we don’t have a single top 10 OGWR player in the field this week it promises to be a good event. So set your alarms clocks early.

Onto the Challenge Tour then:

This week saw the Culmination of a year’s long hard work for many pro’s who were looking to qualify for the ET proper without having to revisit Q School.

Tommy Fleetwood securing his position at the top of the CT money list with a fine 2nd place finish in the final event of the season.

Andrea Pavan doing the same thing as Matt Haines did last term, winning in San Domenico to claim 2nd place on the money list and gain full playing rights, he’s yet another Italian showing promise and could be around for a long time.

Ricardo Santos couldn’t keep up early season form and saw his place at the top of the list finish in a respectable 4th at the end of the season. With Sam Little and Benjamin Hebert making up the final top 5 places at #3 & #5 respectively. Though this is good on their CV’s it makes little difference to the two men who both had already gained full ET playing rights by virtue of having 3 CT wins apiece this year.

The other notables making a late charge for ET full cards for next year were Andrew Johnston moving up from outside the top 20 into a final placing of #15 and Pelle Edberg remember him, squeezing in late at #18 only a top 5 finish at San Domenico would have been good enough to get inside the final top 20 so he went out and finished 5th doing just enough.

So the final standings of who made it and who to watch out for:

1. Tommy FLEETWOOD
2. Andrea PAVAN
3. Sam LITTLE
4. Ricardo SANTOS
5. Benjamin Hebert
6. Daniel Denison
7. Federico Colombo
8. Jamie Moul
9. Jorge Campillo
10. Mathew Baldwin
11. Edouard Dubois
12. Simon Thornton
13. Julien Quesne
14. Craig Lee
15. Andrew Johnston
16. Sam Walker
17. Charles-Edouard Russo
18. Pelle Edberg
19. Chris Gane
20. Alessandro Tadini

So who to watch out for, well there really are only a handful of standouts on the list for me this year, I’d expect Fleetwood and Pavan to make the most impact, and finish somewhere in the top 75 RTD in their first seasons. Other than those Sam Little, Hebert and Pelle Edberg are for me the most likely to retain their cards. Little has the game and will look to carry on this year’s end of season form. Hebert and Edberg have both been on the tour before and narrowly missed out on retaining playing rights for varying reasons. Other than those there maybe a surprise package but I think the rest will return to Q-School or the CT.

I know this has been a long thread to get through, but it’s been the most active week on the ET/CT Schedule for quite sometime and didn’t want to miss anything out, so thanks for propping the old eyes open with matchsticks and reading through to this point.

All attentions now turn to Q-School and the RTD. So one last special mention from me on here, watch out for a young Man by the name of Jordan Gibb, successfully through stage 1 Q-School, a young man I’ve played a lot of golf with and has been playing the Alps tour this year for experience and had good college career in the states (if not spectacular). Should do well and hopefully he’ll make the tour proper this year, also very good friends with someone I champion of here my friend Matt Haines. The one big note about Jordan and his family though is he has a golfing Sister, Danielle herself currently a collegiate player in the states and gearing up for a career on the LPGA/LET tours.

kwinigolfer wrote:It's only early, but Harrington has a share of the lead in Malaysia. When was the last time that happened? Nice to see.

He even made an eagle on a par 5!

What's up with Pablo Martin in South Africa? Turns up as defending champ twice over, shoots 81-82 and dead last...

NedB-H wrote:What's up with Pablo Martin in South Africa? Turns up as defending champ twice over, shoots 81-82 and dead last...

When's the next fantasy event, Ned and when will be get the result of the last one?

Hi LP

Been working on the results here and there this week, but my internet went down for a couple of days which didn't help... got family visiting this weekend, but should get the results done Sunday night. Will probably have two more events this season, SA Open next week and Dubai two weeks after that, I've got a fair bit of work coming up so doubt I'll fit a third in sadly.