Víctor Pastor joins the China leg of the Challenge Tour. At the last moment and just in time. The Cordoban player gets into the two tournaments that will be held in the Asian country in extremis. After having a match point against him, it seemed that the season’s match in the Challenge was over, but he has been given two extra lives.
Initially, this two-event tour was reserved only for the top 72 players of the year, serving as the first cut before the grand final of the Road to Mallorca which will be contested by the top 45 of the year.
The Spaniard arrived at the last tournament before China in 73rd place on the Road. He needed to gain a position in the Czech Republic to avoid saying goodbye to his season on the circuit. Finally, although he made the cut, the victory of Benjamin Follett-Smith and the second place of Maxence Giboudot, both coming from behind, prevented him from making the coveted cut. His season in the Challenge seemed to be over.
However, at the end of the tournament and after two hours of tense waiting, Víctor was informed that positions shifted because the top three in the Road to Mallorca ranking decided not to travel to Hainan. Rasmus Neergard-Pettersen and John Parry have already ascended directly having won three times each this year, and Joakim Lagergren, with the DP World Tour card secured and only pending the position in which he will do so, has decided not to be part of the long journey to the East. The fortunate ones from these decisions have been Aaron Zemmer, Víctor himself, and Ben Schmidt.
“Those were two very long hours, but I’m very happy to have these two more tournaments. In a way, I was calm because I already had the Challenge card for next year secured, but with this news, I’ve gained two extra lives and we’re going to try to make the most of the opportunity,” he told Ten Golf on Monday morning just before boarding the plane.
The role model is called Benjamin Follett-Smith who arrived in the Czech Republic in 74th place and is now in 26th, just six positions away from earning the European Tour card. One week can change everything, and Víctor is aware of it. The Andalusian has been playing a lot of consecutive tournaments, specifically nine in a row, and as he himself acknowledges, they haven’t been his best months of golf, but golf has given him an extra life, and he will try to make the most of it.
Moreover, both events offer more points than the rest of the regular circuit tournaments. The events have distributed 2000 points during the course, and both Hainan and Hangzhou offer 2750. A good performance can change absolutely everything.
With this last-minute inclusion, there will be six Spaniards playing in this mini-tour: Joel Moscatel and Ángel Ayora, both already with the DP World Tour card secured, Quim Vidal who is in 36th place and within the Mallorca final, and Borja Virto, Lucas Vacarisas, and Víctor Pastor himself who need to have a good tour to get into the Alcanada tournament.
