Carlos Pigem was almost packing his bags to return to Barcelona from Hong Kong when he received a most pleasant call. “Carlos, you’re in Qatar.” The Spanish golfer will be able to play the International Series of Qatar, the penultimate tournament of the Asian Tour calendar, which takes place from Thursday to Sunday this week. An unexpected bonus. A welcome surprise.
On Friday, after missing the cut at the Hong Kong Golf Club, he was convinced that his adventure this year on the Asian circuit was over and that the next stop would be the Final Stage in Thailand at the end of December. However, fate has given him a silver bullet. He will have one last chance to save his card and avoid the ordeal of the School.
Obviously, everything depends on having a great week at the Doha Golf Club in Qatar, a course where he has played two European Tour tournaments. In 2022, the most recent, he finished in 49th place with four rounds of 74, 67, 76, and 73 strokes, and in 2018, the year he missed the cut with scores of 70 and 74 strokes. What do we mean by having a great week? Well, his calculations are simple: an eighth place on his own could be enough to save the card, although the higher he finishes, obviously, the less he will need to rely on the calculator.
Another secondary objective would be to finish in the top 40 of the International Series ranking, a classification that runs separately from the Asian Tour order of merit. Pigem would need a top 11 finish to get into the top forty. What would it be for? Well, it’s not a bad prize: they qualify directly to play the LIV Promotions, you know, the LIV school held in Abu Dhabi that awards a spot in LIV for the winner and nine cards to play the International Series for those finishing from second to ninth place.
Pigem, who is not too comfortable with his game, will play his ninth tournament in Asia in the last ten weeks. He knows that at any moment he can turn the situation around and hopes it will be this week. In Qatar, he will not be alone. There are four other Spaniards in the tournament: Eugenio López Chacarra, David Puig, Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, and Luis Masaveu. The last two have received an invitation. Pigem played the practice round today with Chacarra, who is playing very well, as he demonstrated last weekend in Hong Kong.
The other big curiosity this week in Doha is the exceptional caddie that Gonzalo has found. The Madrid native will be accompanied this week with the bag on his shoulder by his 14-year-old daughter Lola. A good pair.
If things don’t go well for Pigem this week, he will go straight to the Final Stage. He is exempt until the Final due to his status as a former winner on the Asian Tour. This exemption ends this year. The Final Stage of Asia is held from 17 to 21 December in Thailand.
