Carlos Pigem returns to the Asian Tour. The golfer from Lleida has secured one of the cards in the grand final of the School that concluded this Sunday at the Lake View Resort complex in Hua Hin, Thailand. With a par, Carlos. Or rather, with four. Four par cards and a playoff were enough to make good, or very good, the result of five under par from the first round back on Wednesday.
He has suffered. He has suffered a lot. That’s what it takes. It almost always does in a qualifying school. Wherever and however it is. Pigem arrived at the fifth and final round of the final right on the number needed to at least get into the playoff, as exactly 35 players advanced to the circuit, without ties. It seemed that a par round might be insufficient, but slightly tougher playing conditions today and the nerves of everything at stake in the last 18 holes meant that par was enough to stay in the playoff.
Pigem has shown his mettle. As always. With grit and fighting spirit, no one can defeat him. His round was a roller coaster. He started with a bogey on the 1st, followed by birdies on the 4th and 8th. When it seemed he was pulling ahead, bam, another bogey on the 9th. He passed the first stretch of the round at par. Nine holes remained and everything was to be decided. Carlos drew on his experience, stuck to his strategy, and tried to minimize mistakes. He made a bogey on the 13th, which left him out of the battle, but soon came back with a great birdie on the 15th, a par 5. Three holes remained, and with a birdie, he was in, with par he went to the playoff, and with a bogey, he was out.
As if five days of suffering weren’t enough, Pigem ‘decided’ to finish with three consecutive pars and enter a crowded playoff. Twelve players played for eight spots. The battle. And Carlos emerged victorious. Inside. Challenge completed. Another one. When there was no safety net beneath the wire. Goal achieved. Pigem secured one of those eight spots available in the playoff and once again obtained the Asian Tour card.
The 35-year-old golfer from Lleida returns after a year of absence to the Asian circuit with full rights. Golf gives him a second chance. Or rather, Pigem pulls a second chance out of his sleeve when it seemed that competition had taken a back seat. He confessed as much just a year ago, after losing the Asian card in 2024. It’s over, he said. I will continue playing golf because it’s what I love most, but in a different way, were more or less his words.
Who knows if precisely the fact of stepping back a bit from the day-to-day competition is what has allowed him to return in style. What he has played this year, he has done very well. There have been 11 tournaments, with a fifth place in the Challenge de Cádiz. Additionally, of his last five appearances, already at the end of the year, in the Asian Tour, he has made four cuts, with two top 25 finishes to end. The game was there. It really never left, sometimes it’s just not easy to bring it out.
Pigem returns to his home, to his circuit, to the competition where he has been happiest and achieved the best results. In the Asian Tour, he has won and competed for seven years since 2013. In 2016, he reached his best position in the order of merit (13th), precisely the year he won his only tournament counting towards the world ranking, the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship. Of course, that victory was in a playoff. It couldn’t be any other way.
In addition to the full Asian Tour card for Pigem, Spanish golf takes a great category in the Asian Development Tour for Agustí Quinquilla, that is, the second division of the Asian circuit. The golfer from Barcelona will alternate this circuit with the Alps Tour. A new door opens. The winner of this final of the School was the Chinese Yuxin Lin (-16), followed by the Thai Shaurya Bhattacharya (-15). Among those who secured the card, the Mexican Roberto Lebrija stands out, finishing fourth. The last day saw major upsets, like the 81 of the Japanese Ishizaka, dropping from second position to risking it all in the playoff, the French Leray, with 76 strokes, or the Indian Jaglan. How tough the School is, especially on the last day.
