The Challenge Tour’s season-long Road to Mallorca concludes with the Grand Final at the Spanish island’s Club de Golf Alcanada.
The tournament offers players the chance to earn one of 20 DP World Tour cards for next season. With the states that high, even one of the largest purses of the Challenge Tour season, $500,000, is unlikely to be the biggest incentive as the 45 members of the field jostle for those all-important places.
The winner will claim 640 points towards his final position in the Road to Mallorca standings. As a result, all 45 players have a realistic chance of promotion to the DP World Tour this week.
Leading the way in the standings is Manuel Elvira. As well playing in his homeland, the Spaniard also has more top-10 finishes than anyone on the Challenge Tour this season. Even though he is still chasing his first win of the season, for those reasons he is the man to beat.
Not far behind him in the standings is Ugo Coussaud from France. He counts victory at The Challenge in March among five top 10 finishes this season and will surely be confident of rubber-stamping his DP World Tour card having almost secured it heading into the tournament.
Others in the top 10 of the standings in prime position to take a DP World Tour card include South African Casey Jarvis, who is third. This is the 20-year-old’s maiden season on the Challenge Tour, and bigger things appear to be just around the corner.
Elsewhere, despite only making his first Challenge Tour appearance of the season five months ago, Swede Jesper Svensson is also in a strong position to move up a level, along with compatriot Adam Blomme.
Another player close to earning his card is Italian Andrea Pavan, who has won on the DP World Tour twice, most recently edging out Matt Fitzpatrick in the 2019 BMW International Open. Pavan is joined by compatriot Matteo Mannassero, who also has plenty of DP World Tour experience and has won on it four times. He begins the tournament eighth in the Road to Mallorca standings.
Two-time DP World Tour winner Andrea Pavan is eyeing a return to the circuit
Stuart Manley and Francesco Laporta are other players eyeing a DP World Tour return, and sit 14th and 15th in the standings, respectively. South African Brandon Stone, with three DP World Tour wins, begins the tournament in 16th.
Even the player 45th in the standings, Frenchman Martin Couvra, will be hopeful of a card having won in Spain earlier in the season at the Challenge de Espana. He begins his challenge 267.28 points behind Scotsman Euan Walker in 20th, well within reach of promotion with a similar performance.
Below is the full field for the Challenge Tour Grand Final.
Challenge Tour Grand Final Field
- Jeppe Kristian Andersen
- Sam Bairstow
- Adam Blommé
- Steven Brown
- Ivan Cantero
- Ashley Chesters
- Ugo Coussaud
- Martin Couvra
- Manuel Elvira
- Will Enefer
- Oliver Farr
- Darren Fichardt
- Benjamin Follett-Smith
- Sebastian Friedrichsen
- Joel Girrbach
- Ricardo Gouveia
- Jordan Gumberg
- Marc Hammer
- Craig Howie
- Sam Hutsby
- Casey Jarvis
- Nicolai Kristensen
- Frederic Lacroix
- Francesco Laporta
- Tom Lewis
- Matteo Manassero
- Stuart Manley
- Félix Mory
- Andrea Pavan
- Marco Penge
- Jaco Prinsloo
- Conor Purcell
- Maximilian Rottluff
- Jamie Rutherford
- Lauri Ruuska
- Lorenzo Scalise
- JJ Senekal
- Julian Suri
- Jesper Svensson
- Brandon Stone
- Brandon Robinson Thompson
- Lucas Vacarisas
- Tom Vaillant
- Lars Van Meijel
- Euan Walker
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