This week’s Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by the R&A marks the start of the final third of the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca schedule.
Across the opening 20 events of the 2023 season, there have been 19 different winners with Matteo Manassero the only player to have won twice.
In a campaign which has so far seen experienced players return to the winner’s circle and young talent come to the fore, the battle for promotion to the DP World Tour is beginning to take shape.
Later this year, the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, at Club de Golf Alcanada from November 2-5, will see the top 45 players on the Rankings vie for one of the life-changing 20 DP World Tour cards.
The Challenge Tour has long proven a great breeding ground for future DP World Tour winners, with 2022 graduates Matt Baldwin, Daniel Hillier and Tom McKibbin all claiming titles so far this season.
Here, we profile the players who currently occupy the top three positions on the Road to Mallorca and seem set to be among the latest to benefit from the formal pathway.
Casey Jarvis
Age: 20
Road to Mallorca Ranking: 1
Challenge Tour wins this season: 1 (Euram Bank Open)
Jarvis, who only turned 20 in July, is being tipped for a successful future in the game after proving a consistent force in his debut campaign on the Challenge Tour.
After finishing as the Sunshine Tour rookie of the year for 2022-23, the South African has since picked up his first Challenge Tour win at the Euram Bank Open in Austria last month.
That breakthrough triumph came after he registered three runner-up finishes earlier in the season, including in back-to-back events in Denmark and the Czech Republic.
Jarvis will play on the DP World Tour next week when he tees it up at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics in Northern Ireland.
But it by no means will be his first taste of the DP World Tour, having made his first start in the South African Open – a co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour – at the age of 16 in 2020.
Ugo Coussaud
Age: 30
Road to Mallorca Ranking: 2
Challenge Tour wins this season: 1 (The Challenge presented by KGA)
The Frenchman, who turned professional in 2010, has competed on the Challenge Tour since 2018 but now appears set to make the step up after an outstanding start to the season.
After finishing in the top 20 – including two top tens – in his opening four events of the year, Coussaud claimed his maiden Challenge Tour win by one stroke at The Challenge presented by KGA in India.
That success in March was almost backed up by another in the second of back-to-back events in the Middle East as he finished second to Max Rottluff in the UAE Challenge at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club.
But by then he was already firmly at the top of the season-long rankings, where he remained before he was overhauled by Jarvis when the South African won in Austria.
He has not missed a cut in his three DP World Tour starts this season and, like Jarvis, will be in Northern Ireland next week before returning to the Challenge Tour later this month for the Dormy Open in Sweden.
Matteo Manassero
Age: 30
Road to Mallorca Ranking: 3
Challenge Tour wins this season: 2 (Copenhagen Challenge presented by Ejner Hessel and Italian Challenge Open)
After a long period of soul-searching over his game, Manassero appears to be enjoying a career rejuvenation after winning twice on the Challenge Tour so far this season.
Victory at the Copenhagen Challenge in May came on the weekend of the ten-year anniversary of his memorable triumph at the BMW PGA Championship.
A decade ago, his victory at Wentworth saw him become a four-time DP World Tour winner but the former World Number One amateur was unable to sustain that form over the subsequent years.
After dropping down to the Alps Tour, where he ended a seven-year winless run with victory on home soil in 2020, the Italian has since been trying to rebuild his career.
Since his win in Denmark earlier this season, he has carried that momentum and picked up a second title at the Italian Challenge Open at the start of July to solidify his position in the top three on the rankings.
You can find out who else is currently in line for a DP World Tour card via the Road to Mallorca, by clicking here.
