– Zander Lombard (-37) has dominated the DP World Tour Qualifying School Final, breaking all historical records of this six-round tournament that concluded today at Infinitum Golf in Tarragona. Never before had the winner surpassed the -30 mark, but the South African, who really went into the sixth and final round with his work already done, also posted his best score today, a 63 on the Lakes course of the Tarragona complex. With this score, pay attention, he finished thirteen strokes ahead of his closest pursuers, young Australian Kevin McKinney (-24), Canadian Aaron Cockerill (-24), and Indian Shubhankar Sharma (-24), regaining his playing rights on the DP World Tour just three weeks after losing them, following a missed cut in Korea, the last tournament of the regular European Tour calendar.
– Lombard has always been a somewhat unpredictable player, but what he has done over the past six days at Infinitum surpasses any expectations, with scores of 64, 69, 67, 64, 64, and 63 on the two courses, Hills and Lakes. Astonishing. In 2018, by the way, on these same two courses, he also immediately regained his playing rights in the First Division by finishing in first place in the Qualifying School Final, tied with Alejandro Cañizares.
– Adri Arnaus (-19) has also been among the twenty chosen ones who regain or obtain for the first time the European Tour card. In his case, he regained it after losing it a year ago and enduring a tough season on the HotelPlanner Tour. The Catalan player started today well-positioned, in twelfth place, but with a lot of work still to do, without the spot secured by any means. Thus, in a well-worked but also challenging round, he left the 13th hole with all alarms activated. Adri carded a bogey on this short par 4, one of the easiest on both courses, and at that moment, he was out of the top twenty with a +1 for the day. He faced, therefore, a grim crossroads after so many days and hours of struggle, but just at that moment, probably one of the most delicate in the career of the man from Moià, he was about to showcase his best version.
It is true that Arnaus still had the last two par 5s ahead, holes 16 and 18, but he also had to negotiate the par 4 of the 15th hole on the Lakes course, undoubtedly one of the most challenging of the entire Infinitum Golf, including both courses… And he settled it with a birdie of enormous value, given the stressful circumstances. Additionally, Adri also managed a birdie on the 16th and, as a bonus, another on the 17th, a par 3 that is not exactly a walk in the park. As mentioned: just when the pressure was at its peak, after a too irregular year and a great recent disappointment in the Hotel PlannerTour Final, Arnaus put his best version on display, the one that once even put him in the Ryder Cup predictions. There is no better way to return to the First Division. Well, yes, there is: in Lombard’s way. But that is another story that this week had nothing to do with the golf played by mortals.
– Santi Tarrio (-13) did not stop trying. Given the circumstances, the Galician would have needed a score of ten under for the day to get into the top twenty, an almost impossible mission. However, starting from the 10th hole, he posted a dazzling series of four birdies and an eagle between holes 17 and 3 that still gave him a glimmer of hope, although he ultimately fell five strokes short of the target. Luis Masaveu (-11), for his part, held his own over his first nine holes, with a three-under score, also starting from the 10th hole, but was stalled by the second half of the round, and two bogeys in this stretch ultimately buried his chances.
– This is the list of the twenty players who have passed the great cut and gain playing rights on the DP World Tour: South African Zander Lombard, Canadian Aaron Cockerill, Indian Shubhankar Sharma, Australian Kevin McKinney, Portuguese Daniel Rodrigues, French Quentin Debove, Italian Gregorio De Leo, Zimbabwean Benjamin Follet-Smith, Spanish Adri Arnaus, Norwegian Andreas Halvorsen, Dutch Mike Toorop, Brazilian Frederico Biondi, Thai Sadom Kaewkanjana, Argentine Andrés Gallegos, Englishmen Nathan Kimsey, Mathew Baldwin, Yack Yule, and Eddie Pepperell, and Americans Davis Bryant and Hunter Logan. In total, players from 16 different nationalities, one of the hallmarks of such an absolutely global tour.
