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But as history records not only did Simon Khan win the Final Stage last December he also went on to secure the BMW PGA Championship title at Wentworth in May – earning a five year exemption for the European Tour - and now sits in 23rd place in the Race to Dubai with prize money of €931,143 to his credit. What a turnaround in golfing fortunes in twelve months.
A year ago Edoardo Molinari was leading The Challenge Tour rankings and looking forward to join his older brother Francesco, who had reached the European Tour, ranks after a fourth place finish at the Final Qualifying in 2004 at San Roque in Spain. In twelve months Edoardo's career has encompassed all that could be imagined in the golf – winning at European Tour event in his first season at Gleneagles, then winning the World Cup in Mission Hills in China with Francesco, followed by not only playing in a the European Ryder Cup team - but also becoming a winner at The Celtic Manor in October.
Spain’s Alejandro Cañizares ended last season in 127th pace with €216,910 which was not enough to get close to top 115 places and so he too faced a return to Q School – from where he qualified in 5th place - along with Sam Hutsby, Stephen Gallacher, Marco Ruiz, Fredrik Ohlsson, Eric Tage Johansen, Mark Haastrup, Steve O’Hara and Clodomiro Carranza as the other players in the top ten.
Today Cañizares is 30th in the Race to Dubai with €744,560 in prize money.
Of all those players only Ohlsson of Sweden, Johansen of Denmark and Carranza of Argentina will return to Q School with others now exempt for the 2011 season having finished amongst the top 115 players.
What can be said of 17 year old Italian, Matteo Manassero, who this time last year could not have imagined he would break records at every turn.
Having recently became the youngest winner on the European Tour Member - after only making his professional debut at the BMW Italian Open earlier this year – he was also the youngest – and first Italian – winner of the Amateur Championship in June 2009, adding the honour of being the youngest winner of the Silver Medal awarded to the leading amateur in The Open Championship at Turnberry.
In April 2010 he then became the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters Tournament, finishing in a tie for 36th place in what was the best performance by a European amateur for 73 years.
All in all a year that players dream about when they are wiring to break into the professional ranks. But if of only it were always that easy all the time?
Kilkenny man, Gary Murphy, this time last year was amongst the mix of Khan, Hutsby and Cañizares in 124th place on €234,844 and also had to make the journey to Q School – ten years after his success of 1999 – from where he duly qualified 17th out of the thirty places on offer. This season however his fortunes have gone a different way with earnings of €19,152 after 26 events - a poor return for his efforts – and so he faces the return trip to the PGA Catalunya in December to regain his card.
For Murphy the problem this season has been too many missed cuts making the final rounds only six times as a lack of consistency saw him struggle for most of the year. It 2003 that he secured his best finish of 59th - which included a fourth place at the Barclay's Scottish Open - and missing no cuts that year
For Simon Thornton the story was not so much of missed cuts - although there were eleven in all out of 22 events played - it seemed more a failure to close out results on the final day of some key tournaments. The BMW Championship in Munich being an example given that he played in the final group on the Sunday with Bradley Dredge and Ross Fisher after carding three successive rounds of 67 – only to sign for a final round of 73 for ninth place.
Currently 135th in the Race to Dubai the Newcastle County Down based Thornton has finished the year a minimum of thirty thousand euro short of the cut off and perhaps knows that in a few events that difference could have been made up. In fairness though having qualified 29th at Final Qualifying Thornton’s performances in the early part of the season were impressive.
Following the first re-rank of the season in May he moved up 10 places in Category 11 to 18th place. At the time the former Royal County down Assistant Professional had been hoping to do even better and had the re-rank in his sights when he committed to the Madeira Islands Open BPI - Portugal, the weekend his first child, Katie, was due.
In August he benefited again moving up to 12th place - all of which was vital for tournament qualification when it comes to the reserve list.
On the other hand Gary Murphy went the other way dropping back to 36th place from his original spot of 17th - making it very difficult to qualify for the bigger events - and so he chose some Challenge Tour events to keep his game in shape.
With the season now drawing to a close and both players are not eligible for the Valderrama Andalucia Masters or the WGC – HSBC Champions in Shanghai so a visit to the Final Stage of Qualifying School now looks the most likely route back to European Tour golf next season.
With Stage 2 yet to be completed it remains to be seen how many Irish players can get through this year to the Final Stage with nine candidates – Michael Collins, Stephen Grant, Michael McGeady, Damien Mooney, David Mortimer, Mervyn Owens, Gareth Shaw, Barrie Trainor, Niall Turner – in action in Spain at the end of November.
Last year four Irish players – Niall Kearney, John Kelly, Colm Moriarty and Jonathan Caldwell - qualified from Stage 2 with Simon Thornton to PGA Catalunya where they were joined by Gary Murphy, who by the virtue of being a Tour player, was exempt to the final stage. This year Thornton will at least benefit from that privilege.
A year ago eleven players qualified for Stage 2 from which only five emerged to the Final stage. In the end only one – Simon Thornton – made it through.
This season there is chance to improve on that statistic with Thornton and Murphy very capable of regaining their status.
For the other nine Irish players the first huddle is Stage 2 in Spain on November 26th to 29th.
All rights reserved - October 2010
