Laurie Canter has once again written a painful page in his record of near successes. It happened this Sunday in Abu Dhabi, in the final round of the LIV Golf Promotions, the Saudi league school that debuted this year.
The English golfer had the card in his hand on two occasions and wasted both. First, he was unable to make a birdie on hole 18 of the regular tournament, a par 5 that is always played as one of the easiest on the Arab course. And then, he missed a two-meter putt for birdie on the first playoff hole, which would also have given him the card.
In the second playoff, he sent the ball into the water and finally lost the playing rights of LIV Golf, unless as happened last year, the team of Poulter, Westwood and Stenson claim his services in replacement of Sam Horsfield, who has been injured for many weeks.
The three players who have earned the LIV Golf card for next year are Kalle Samooja, who won the final 36-hole round with a total of eight under par, including two decisive birdies in the last two holes, as well as Kieran Vincent and Jinichiro Kozuma, who survived the playoff against Canter after finishing with -7.
Samooja is a 34-year-old veteran Finnish golfer who struggled to reach the DP World Tour. In 2022 he won the Porsche European Open. This year he kept the card in Europe, but could not qualify for the Dubai Final.
Vincent is the brother of Scott, from Zimbabwe, and is 26 years old. He turned professional last year and his progression has been more than notable. This year he won the International Series of Vietnam.
Finally, Kozuma is a regular on the Japan Tour. He is 29 years old and was once in the top 100 worldwide, in those times when the distribution of ranking points significantly benefited the golfers of the Japanese circuit. Right now, he is ranked 523. He has two victories on the Japan Tour, in 2022 and 2020.
Let’s remember that three Spaniards, Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, Álvaro Quirós and Luis Masaveu, started playing these LIV Golf Promotions, although they were eliminated on the first day.
Now it remains to be seen in which teams the three golfers qualified through the School will be grouped.
