The European Tour Qualifying School reaches the final stages this weekend with 157 players starting six rounds on the Stadium Course at the PGA Catalunya Golf Resort in search of 30 places that will be decided next Thursday, December 9th.
Amongst the Irish players seeking one of those valuable places for the 2011 season is Simon Thornton who returns after finishing in 29th place on the same course a year ago - after rounds of 67, 75, 69, 69 and 71 – to reclaim the card having fallen short in his rookie season on the European Tour.
Thornton ended 141st in the Race to Dubai and returns to Q School in the knowledge that his consistency in the earlier part of the 2010 season was rewarded in the two of the season’s re-ranks – moving him from 29th at the outset to 12th at the end – earning him a total of € 116,954.
Colm Moriarty of Glasson Golf and Country Club also returns to the final stage twelve months after his last visit when he missed the fourth round cut following rounds of 65, 77, 68 and 76. This will be Moriarty’s third time at Final Qualifying having played in 2007 and 2009. However it is the Athlone golfer’s tenth year seeking full playing rights on the European Tour.
This season Moriarty qualified for the 150th Open Championship - where he finished in 37th on one under in very difficult conditions - also notching up two top ten finishes on the Challenge Tour - ALLIANZ Golf Open du Grand Toulouse and Fred Olsen Challenge de España.
Moriarty finished 43rd place in the Challenge Tour Rankings failing to take advantage of the last event of the season at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final where a top 20 place would have guaranteed him European Tour exemptions for 2011 - and spared him a return to Q School.
The third player in the mix is Damian Mooney, from Northern Ireland, who last made the Final stage in 2007 – with a previous trip in 2000 - having finished in 33rd place on that trip three years ago.
At Stage 2 last weekend in Costa Ballena Golf Resort, Mooney was three shots behind the winner, Eirik Tage Johansen of Norway, and is continuing his good season which also saw him finish second in the Irish PGA Regions 2010 Lexus Race to Mount Juliet in association with Ping and Failte Ireland – behind David Higgins of Waterville.
Niall Kearney, the 2009 GB&I Walker Cup team returns to the venue which saw him finish in 49th place on his first ever attempt last year – ending up three shots off the pace. Although missing for a lengthy part of this summer with a shoulder injury the Dubliner returned to action last week in Jerez carding a third round 65 at Q S Stage 2 to grab eleventh place and make one of the automatic places for the Final stage which starts on Saturday.
The challenge of Final Q School should not be underestimated and the list of entries holds names of players past and present all scrambling for the right to earn a living on Europe's main professional golf tour next year. They include young stars like Sam Hutsby of England, Jesus Martin Arrutti and Carlos del Moral from Spain or veterans such as Joakim Haeggeman from Sweden and Santiago Luna of Spain.
For all these are the toughest of six days of the season with only the top eighty making the fourth round cut - from which only the top thirty finishers on Thursday afternoon will be on the European Tour in 2011.
Last year six players travelled in hope and three were eliminated after the fourth round – John Kelly, Colm Moriarty and Jonathan Caldwell – with Niall Kearney making it but finishing 19 places outside the top 30. Gary Murphy finished in 17th place and Simon Thornton 29th both getting their cards for 2010.
Although Thornton has the chance this week to reclaim his card Murphy is now in the equivalent of golfing " no man's land" having failed to pass Stage 2 last week. As a result he will not be playing on the European Tour next year for first time since he first graduated through Q School in 1999.
