There can be few things more tumultuous than a season on the second tier, so after 26 tournaments in 20 countries so far in 2014, europeantour.com took a look at the numbers that mattered most ahead of this week’s Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club.
When it comes to prestige, and the right to call yourself top dog, the man who has all but assured himself of first place on the Rankings is Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston thanks to hisprize haul of €181,115from two tournament victories and a host of other top performances besides.
Mathematically the Englishman is almost assured of being named Challenge Tour Number One, butfour menwill still harbour hopes – however small – of catching the 25 year old, namely Moritz Lampert, Byeong-hun An, Sam Hutsby and Mark Tullo.
That quartet willrequire at least a tournament victoryin Dubai and hope the current incumbent finishes near the bottom of the field. Johnston has not teed it up since the end of September in Kazakhstan though, so the men in close pursuit will no doubt hope for a little ring rust if they are to usurp the Number One elect.
Some€137,090 behindthe man at the top of the season-long list is a Spaniard who would currently be the last to secure his place on The European Tour in 2015 – Antonio Hortal.
The Madrid native triumphed earlier in the season at the Challenge de Catalunya, but currently residesjust €832aheadof three-time European Tour winner Johan Edfors who is just one spot outside that all important top 15 with just 72 holes left to play this year.
Señor Hortal will need to keep an eye on more than just the chasing Swede though, withsix players no more than €10,000away from the 25 year old. He therefore cannot afford to dedicate his anxious gaze to just that dangerous half dozen, as any man in the field can still graduate if results were to go their way.
Hugues Joannes is in the midst of a solid debut on the second tier in 2014, and while he may enter the week at Al Badia€28,572 behind 15th placeat 45th on the Rankings, at least a runner-up finish could still see the Belgian make the step up to golf’s top table.
Plenty to play for then, and some interesting figures too, at the end of a season that has thrown up plenty.
On closer inspection there are some stand out numbers that have added together to compile this season’s field for the Grand Final, the first of which has to be Lampert’s three Challenge Tour victories from just ten starts,averaging an impressive €13,480 in earnings per event.
The man at second on the Rankings has played the least of anyone in the 44-strong field this week, in comparison to Jason Palmer (seventh), Niccolo Quintarelli (34th) and Jeppe Huldahl (39th) who haveall teed it up 23 times, earning an average of €4,604, €2,275 and €2,050 respectively.
For the whole field – with the omission of Florian Fritsch, who is not playing this week due to his fear of flying – theplayers have averaged 19 starts, earning €71,009 this year.
To earn that kind of money takes a lot of top performances, and overall the players competing this week have amassed22wins,27runners-up finishes,27third places and have finished between fourth and tenth position99times this campaign.
Breaking that down player-by-player, the aforementioned Lampert may lead the way with three wins but Johnston is in close attendance with two, as is Benjamin Hebert and Jake Roos.
Fritsch has had themost runner-up finishesin 2014 with three, but the French pair of Michael Lorenzo-Vera and Adrien Bernadet will both tee it up this week with two to their name, while Bernd Ritthammer and Mark Tullo lead the way witha trio of third place results.
Pontus Widegren and Robert Coles are both a little down the Rankings at 30th and 41st respectively, but both have finished between fourth and tenth spotthe most times this season with six, a fact that illustrates the importance of finishing as high as possible during the good weeks if graduation is to be achieved.
Overall Tullo – who won the VACON Open in August – has recorded themost top ten finishes with nine, and that is illustrated in his current fifth place on the Rankings, while Johnston has recorded eight, and Fritsch seven.
One final illustration of the strength of the field this week, and on the Challenge Tour in general, is the fact that there are two Challenge Tour winners this year – not counting those who triumphed in events co-sanctioned with The European Tour – that have not managed to qualify in the top 45 this week.
For bothRicardo GouveiaandPierre Relecomit was close but not quite in 2014, regardless of their maiden tournament titles, which shows that it takes more than one good week to flourish on a circuit where consistency is very much king across the season.
Tune in from Wednesday when the most important number of all will be decided with44 set to become 15by Saturday afternoon.
