From Q School to Play-Offs: Gregorio De Leo at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship

Gregorio De Leo is certainly making the most of his second chance on the DP World Tour.

After a stellar amateur career which was extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he quicky claimed three wins on the Alps Tour after joining the paid ranks.

After two years on the HotelPlanner Tour he got his card at the Qualifying School and while he could not keep it in his rookie season, he returned to the six-round marathon at INFINITUM and won it straight back.

Now, after a 2026 campaign that has seen him claim six top tens, he makes his Rolex Series and Play-Off debut after finishing the regular season 46th on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delievered by DP World.

As part of a series focusing on the 2025 Q School graduates who have made it all the way to the 2026 Play-Offs, the DP World Tour caught up with him ahead of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.

You're the only person in the field this week making their Rolex series debut. How excited are you after the season that you've had to be into the Play-Offs and getting into a Rolex Series event for the first time?

I'm pretty excited actually. I'm really looking forward to playing my first Rolex Series, especially after this year where I feel like I played quite solid all season and I feel like my game is in a good spot. So I'm definitely very, very excited and I can't wait to tee off on Thursday.

You've proven over the last few weeks with top fives in Ireland and Italy that you can perform in elite fields against the likes of Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood. How much confidence does that give you going into this week?

I always felt like I was trying to not think about how strong the field was, especially during Ireland and during India. I was just trying to play my best golf and try to be able to say that I performed as best as I could. I felt like I did it quite nicely. Playing against against them though, they are the best in the world in this game, is definitely giving me some confidence to play through the next two events in Abu Dhabi and hopefully in Dubai as well.

How did you initially get into golf? Was it through family and who were your golfing heroes growing up?

It was my mum that he got me into golf. I started when I was six years old because my mum started playing golf because my family had some really close friends that they had a daughter that was in the national team. And so they got my mum into golf. And I was little so my mum was taking me with her at the golf club and it was a love at first sight. I always enjoyed golf. When I started, I was playing football as well and I was doing some swimming. So at one point, I had to decide which one to keep following because, of course, I didn't have time to play all three at the best level so I chose golf. My idol of course was Tiger  Woods because when I was eight, nine, ten, I was looking at the TV and I remember him pretty much winning every single tournament that he was playing. And then after that I feel like Tommy, I've always liked his game, I always liked how he was playing golf because he's a drawer and I always kind of like that ball flight. So definitely those two were my idols we can say.

You enjoyed a lot of amateur success and then just as you got to your late teens, when a lot of people would be thinking about turning professional, Covid hit. Was that a big barrier to you? Did you struggle with that? Did that delay you turning professional or were you always planning to wait a little bit longer?

We actually delayed. I finished high school in 2019 and my plan wasn't to go to college in the US because I wanted to play for something more than points in the amateur World Ranking. Without playing in the US as an amateur it was kind of tough to get into the top 50 in the world because you were getting so few points compared to the guys that they were playing in the US. So I finished high school in 2019 and I was supposed to turn profssional at the end of 2020, so play another year as an amateur and then turn pro but Covid came. We were stuck at home for a couple of months, like everyone, so we didn't play that much during that year, played a little bit at the end of it. So I decided to stay amateur just because there were more tournaments to play as an amateur compared to if I was turning pro because the only tour that I could play was Alps Tour. And so I turned pro at the end of 2021 after playing half a season on the Alps Tour as an amateur and the last I think five events as a pro.

Success came quite quickly on the Alps Tour. You had that incredible summer in 2022 where you had the three wins to get onto the HotelPlanner Tour. A lot of people say that step up can be quite difficult but you didn't seem to find it that way. Would you even go as far as saying you thought at some point: well this is easy, isn't it? Did it come to you very naturally, the step up?

Well, it wasn't actually. Actually, the first year on HotelPlanner Tour it was very tough. I really struggled a lot during the season because the courses that we were playing, they were completely different compared to what we were facing on the Alps Tour. And even the players, there were some hell of a players because it was the year where Matteo (Manassero), (Andrea) Pavan, (Francesco) Laporta, they were all there playing. So a lot of good players coming from DP World Tour were there. So definitely it's been a struggle but I was very happy to keep my card. And I felt like the year after was a little bit, we can say, easier because I knew what to expect out of the golf courses and tournaments. So it definitely helped out and the same happened then when I got into the DP World Tour for the first time last year. That was kind of a struggle as well because with a Q School category last year, you didn't play much. I feel like I played around 17 tournaments. And so it definitely was a little bit of a struggle to keeping the card with so few tournaments.

You came through the Q School and had that first season on the DP World Tour that, as you say, was a little bit of a struggle. Not many people come through Q School back-to-back, that's an incredible achievement in itself. So how much do you think Q School teaches you?

Definitely Q School is a very different tournament to what we are used to because it's six rounds. You need to be focused over six rounds, you don't have to shoot crazy scores but you need to be consistent every single day, Six rounds is quite a lot but if you shoot around three under per round, you're pretty much fine. It's definitely not something where you go there and play freely because you know that you are playing for a card, for a full season on the DP World Tour. So there is definitely some pressures in there but it's different. It's completely different.

Now you're back on the DP World Tour and in this second full year you've made the Play-Offs. What do you think has been different? Do you think it's just an experience thing or have you made some changes in your game or maybe your mentality? What do you think has clicked this season?

Definitely experience has helped out. And me, my team, my coach, we are always trying to improve the game, improve  swing to get better and better because our goal is to get to the PGA Tour and to play Majors. And we never make a change just for the week after, we always plan changes for the long-term over the season. And I feel like those things, they definitely helped out for this season. And because the changes that we did were to be prepared for what was next not just the week after.

Those amateur wins and wins on the Alps Tour, how much confidence do they give you that you can now consistently compete and also win at this level?

Well, winning is difficult, as we know. Winning tournaments is not easy, especially on the DP World Tour but I feel like on every tour it's not easy to win because there are a lot of good players around those tours. I'm feeling confident and of course the thing is my career has always been an improvement year-by-year and we weren't thinking too much about the winning thing. We were more thinking about getting my game to a level that is the most consistent. Because I feel like if your game is consistent for four days, you get more chances to win. Because winning, I feel like if you are within three shots with nine to go on a Sunday, everyone can win. So that's the plan, keeping the game as sharp as possible and as consistent as possible and I feel like the win is going to come by itself, try not to force it.

Now that you have this platform to build on, bigger picture, what are your ambitions? Where do you think your ceiling is, if there is one? And what are your plans for the future: this week, next season, and beyond?

Well, my goal is to be on the PGA Tour and try to play Majors every year. And then this week and the next couple of weeks, the goals are to definitely enjoy those moments. Because it's going to be my first Rolex Series, my first Play-Offs. So the most important thing is to enjoy it. And next season, definitely being able to play a full schedule and decide which tournaments I can go to and which tournaments I can skip is definitely helpful. And the goal is going to be to try to get as close as possible to those PGA Tour cards. So those are the goals for the next couple of seasons.