– Ángel Ayora was the best-ranked Spaniard (5th) at the Alfred Dunhill Links, which concluded this afternoon over 54 holes in Scotland. An excellent final card of 66 strokes at Carnoustie allowed him to climb thirty places on the leaderboard today and, in the process, make a very interesting dent in other goals…
– To begin with, and although it’s not a goal in itself, the young Andalusian, who turned 21 last Friday, has positioned himself as the best Spaniard in the Race to Dubai, moving from 33rd to 27th place, surpassing Eugenio Chacarra, who was the only one ahead of him and did not play the Alfred Dunhill. A noteworthy achievement in the final stretch of the season, especially considering it’s his rookie year.
– Furthermore, Ayora has significantly reduced the large deficit he had regarding one of his major goals of the year, the ten PGA Tour cards. Upon arriving in Scotland, the tenth and last card of the American circuit was held by Elvis Smylie, who was 502 points ahead of Ayora; and once the tournament’s tally was done, with the Australian out of the points, the Spanish player is now 356 points behind Smylie, who remains the benchmark, as that tenth card still rests with him.
– Now, those 356 points are no small feat. Consider, for example, that a solo second place in any of the remaining tournaments before the last two exclusive events (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) grants 555 points. And a solo third place is 312 points. Therefore, he has a few more steps to take, but it’s also worth remembering that Ayora has already secured a spot in those two final tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where the points to be distributed multiply and the shifts in the ranking are frequent: in Abu Dhabi, 9,000 points will be at stake, and in the Dubai Final, another 12,000, compared to the 5,000 being distributed these weeks in the DP World Tour. For example: in Abu Dhabi, a solo third place grants 565 points, and in Dubai, 752, no less…
– As seen, the goal of the PGA Tour is not currently a pipe dream for Ángel Ayora, nor does it depend solely on a big win, but rather on continuing to accumulate solidly and, if possible, finishing the job with a great performance that takes him to the top 5 or top 3 in one of the remaining tournaments, starting with next week’s Open de España. If he achieves this goal, and assuming the young Andalusian might receive another offer from LIV Golf in the coming months, Ayora would have several more than interesting future options on the table and even strong arguments for a possible negotiation with the Saudi league.
