The final full-field event of any European Tour season is always full of winners and losers and 2007 was no exception with Englishmen Sam Little and Richard Finch the main benefactors after a tension-packed afternoon.
Going into the Mallorca Classic, the English duo were both well outside the top 117 players who would keep their playing privileges by right for The 2008 European Tour season, Little in 136th place while Finch was in 124th.
Three weeks ago, incredibly, Little was even outside the top 170 on the Order of Merit but a battling joint seventh place finish in the Open de Madrid Valle Romano in addition to a share of 34th place in the Portugal Masters the following week gave him a chance, which he grabbed with both hands.
Indeed both players showed tremendous grit and determination to get the results they needed in their final outing of the season; Little finishing second, his cheque for €222,220 catapulting him to 76th place on the Order of Merit while Finch’s brave birdie two at the 18th hole at Pula Golf Club saw him finish tied seventh in the tournament and bank a cheque for €48,700 which moved him up to 110th place.
“This feels really great, not just because I have managed to keep my card but because of the way I played today,” said Little, who showed the strain of the occasion by struggling to hold back the tears during his interview with Sky Television’s Tim Barter.
“When I holed my putt for birdie on the 16th I actually thought I might have a chance of winning the tournament but Gregory played well and this is a wonderful consolation. I can’t control what other people do, I can only control myself and because of that, I am really proud of myself for coming through this week.”
While Little appeared relatively calm in his final round 67, the exact opposite was the case for Finch whose final round 72 featured an incredible final six holes which read; bogey, birdie, double bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie!
“Rollercoaster is the only way to describe what went on out there,” he said. “In the circumstances this is not the type of course you want to play on a week like this because there is nowhere to hide, you have to just try and go out and make it happen.
“I was going okay until the final stretch when it all kicked off. One minute I felt fine and then the next I’d hit a shot and say to myself, ‘What am I doing?’ That’s what happened with the double bogey but I was really proud of the way I battled back and to hole for birdie from 15 feet at the last was just superb.”
There was one other player who did enough to move from outside the top 117 at the start of the week into the safety zone, and that was Sweden’s Jarmo Sandelin, who moved from 119th place at the start of the week to position 117 after finishing in a tie for 50th place at Pula Golf Club.
Of course, where there are winners, there are always also losers and the three men who were in the top 117 at the start of the week and who had to give up their places for Little, Finch and Sandelin, were the English duo of Lee Slattery and Ian Garbutt and Scotland’s Alan McLean.
Affiliate Member McLean did not play in the Mallorca Classic and his fate was sealed after the cut was made on Saturday morning, while Slattery was left kicking himself after missing the cut at Pula Golf Club and facing the agonising wait to see if he could cling on.
In the cruellest fashion it turned out that he could not, finishing in 118th place and missing out by the incredibly small sum of €77, Sandelin ending the season with €212,657 while Slattery banked €212,580.
Even crueller was the fortune of Garbutt who made the cut in the Mallorca Classic and who looked to be safe when, with three holes to play, he was two over par for the tournament and on the way to a place in the top 40.
However a disasterous finish, which saw him double bogey the 16th and bogey the 17th saw him drop back into a share of 53rd in the tournament, his cheque for €6,833 being enough only for 119th place on the Order of Merit, an agonising €188 behind Sandelin.
Of course, that means a return to The European Tour Qualifying School Final Stage at San Roque next month for Slattery, Garbutt and McLean, who eventually ended up in 121st place in the Order of Merit, one ahead of Alessandro Tadini who, like Garbutt, finished poorly at Pula – bogeying the 16th and 18th to drop back alongside the Englishman in a share of 53rd place. Tadini finished €1,567 behind Sandelin and will have to return to the School too.
At the top end of the Order of Merit, beside the delight in winning the Mallorca Classic, Gregory Bourdy also had the delight of booking his place in the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama, his cheque for €333,330 moving the Frenchman from 71st place to 38th.
But, as at the bottom end, to make way for Bourdy in the top 60, someone had to drop out and that unlucky person was Denmark’s Mads Vibe-Hastrup who started the week in 60th place but who ended it in 61st position.
Only two weeks ago Vibe-Hastrup was on top of the world after his maiden European Tour win in the Open de Madrid Valle Romano, and indeed at the halfway stage of the Mallorca Classic he was in a share of third place after opening rounds of 68-66.
But, as has been proved once again this weekend, golf can be a cruel game at times and weekend rounds of 74-73 saw the Dane slip back to finish in share of 34th place which saw him slip out of the top 60 on the Order of Merit.
