Manchester-born Sam Horsfield claimed an impressive eight-shot victory at Qualifying School Final Stage as 33 players earned European Tour cards on a dramatic sixth and final day at Lumine Golf Club in Spain.
The Englishman closed with an eight-under-par 63, the best round of his professional career, and the joint lowest round of the week, to reach 27 under par overall.
On another day of good scoring in Tarragona, all eyes were on the qualifying line, with the top 25 and ties earning European Tour cards. It proved to fall at 13 under par, though it was a nervous wait for the nine players tied on that mark – it would only have taken one more player to reach 14 under par to move the mark up and knock them all out. Ultimately, 33 players earned European Tour status.
Past European Tour winners Kristoffer Broberg, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño and Anders Hansen were among the qualifiers, while youngsters Jazz Janewattananond, Connor Syme and Jonathan ‘Jigger’ Thomson will embark on rookie years in the Race to Dubai.
Surrey’s James Heath was the first player to confirm his qualification. The Englishman was out in the first group of the day and birdied the ninth hole – his last – to reach 14 under par and prolong his professional career after a tough few years of questioning his future.
After winning back his place on tour, Heath said: “This bloody game, eh! It’s just an emotional rollercoaster. I genuinely wasn’t going to come this week, I entered last minute and gave it one last push and now I’ve got my European Tour card! I really felt pressure on the last putt. In my head I was going ‘just make contact, just make contact!’, because I couldn’t feel my hands. To birdie the last to get in was phenomenal.”
Horsfield, whose march to qualification was somewhat easier, after shooting rounds of 69, 68, 66, 69, 68 and 63, said: “All these experiences add up. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to one day win on the European Tour, and I can look back on days like today where I came out here and shot 63 in the final round, while having a lead, which is something that you can’t teach and you have to learn by putting yourself in these positions. So next time when I have a lead in another tournament I can hopefully reflect on this memory.
“I am not sure I can say I envisaged being here when I first started this journey at First Stage, but I feel as though my game has been good for a while and it really came together this week. I only missed one green in regulation today and I also managed to hole a lot of putts – which proved to be the difference.”