Brandon Robinson-Thompson (-22), a 31-year-old English golfer, has achieved victory in the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by the R&A, a tournament of the Challenge Tour held from Thursday to Sunday at the Newmachar Golf Club in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The player born on the Isle of Wight, who will celebrate his birthday in a couple of weeks, has gifted himself the second win of his career on the circuit, after last year’s Irish Challenge that opened the doors of the circuit for him, to fully engage in the fight for the cards.
He had everything in his favour after the impressive 62 he delivered on yesterday’s movement day. But not even the fact of starting the last round with a four-stroke lead over the second-placed and seven over the third made him relax in the slightest. He closed his first nine holes today with two strokes less, thanks to three birdies and making only one bogey (he has only made three all week) and certified the victory with four more birdies in the second half of his round.
Robinson-Thompson makes birdie at 3 after a stunning approach shot 🎯#FarmfoodsScottishChallenge pic.twitter.com/ivDCUwD4MD
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) August 11, 2024
The final 22 under par, with rounds of 67, 67, 62 and 66 strokes, will allow him to pocket just over 47,000 euros and what is more important, climb from the 47th position of the Road to Mallorca in which he started the week to the 9th place, already within the positions that would allow him to obtain playing rights for the DP World Tour of 2025. Just over a year ago, and after having gone through the PGA of Latin America, a victory in the MENA Tour allowed him to get an invitation for eight tests of the Clutch Pro Tour. He won three of them and thanks to that he was able to play the Irish Challenge, where he hit the jackpot by winning by two strokes and getting the Challenge card.
He could not finish the season among the top 20 to achieve the coveted promotion (he finished in the 22nd position), but he did give himself another great joy by getting a place in the qualifying phase for the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where he played his first Major. Now he will face the final stretch of the season with the sole objective of obtaining the playing rights of the first division of European golf, something he will have no problem achieving if he continues playing at the level he has shown these days in Scotland.
After him in the classification were the Dane Hamish Brown (-14), who never managed to put Brandon in trouble in this last round, and the South African Robin Williams (-13). Both are in the upper area of the Road, with half a card in their pocket. Privileged positions that players like Quim Vidal (-8) and Borja Virto (-8) aspire to, who have given themselves a little joy this Sunday with rounds of 68 strokes to climb four positions in the table and get into the top 20 of the tournament (tied in the 17th place). In the general of the circuit they will jump to the 52nd and 47th positions after the tournament.
Ángel Ayora (-2), Alejandro Cañizares (+1) and Emilio Cuartero Blanco (+1) could not take advantage of the weekend and finish in the lower area of the classification among those who managed to pass the cut. The next Challenge Tour event will be next week at the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge supported by Finnish Golf Union at the Vierumäki Resort in Vierumäki, Finland.
