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PGA Catalunya Resort has long since proved a barren wasteland for Irish golfers seeking claim to playing rights on the European Tour. This year proved no different as both Tour and Stadium courses show little favour. Even to those trying to reclaim cards following a decade of uninterrupted play. Never mind those arriving in hope for the first time to the hallowed venue.
Resulting in a high Irish casualty rate for Irish hopes by time the cards were signed on Thursday evening. In fairness the signs were ominous by Wednesday when the last remaining four ended the a few places off the minimum 25 and ties needed. With absolutely no room for manoeuvre, missed putts or bad drives. And so it proved.
Perhaps Kevin Phelan the biggest surprise given the end of season form in his Rookie year on the European Tour. Which made him last Saturday morning close to a racing certainty to pass the European Tour Final Qualifying with flying colours. But the score board records something different and did not run with the fairy-tale ending. A final four over par round of 74 in sharp contrast to a year ago when Phelan squeezed a spot in the last few holes.
On Thursday a 428 aggregate left him five shots off the minimum required and twenty strokes off the top of a quality leader board. The new season now all about invites, limited exemptions and hard work from his management company - ISM Golf – to ensure the future remains bright for the Waterford born golfer.
Peter Lawrie in contrast is at the other end of the scale having enjoyed success on the Tour since qualifying in 2003, winning the Spanish Open in his time and playing the US Open in 2010. The Dubliner maybe at a career crossroads and the ambition dimmed somewhat given last season was also a close call. Only keeping his card in the last event of the year down under in Western Australia.
The costs needed to battle for another season and justify a return to Girona in a year’s time may be complicated also by his more limited playing season. All of which might not make financial sense. Yet a round of 71 and share of twenty eighth place was tantalisingly close to making it.
Which might be a spur in a positive direction.
However one bogey and two birdies is as exciting as it got in the final round for Lawrie. Never really good enough to blitz the field and enough to suggest that the 2015 season might have proved a struggle had he qualified.
The dogged consistency that so marked Lawrie’s good years, with solid driving, good pitching and a fair share of putts seems to have waned. His statistics not close to where they were for so long and delivered career earnings of €5.5m
Simon Thornton will be disappointed with his final three rounds 76-72-71 on the Stadium Course after opening with 68-69-67. At one point looking very comfortably placed to spring back his lost card at the first ask. But Thursday dictated it was not to be his fate.
In short, the quality of the field and the level of competition, particularly in the last few rounds, means that the best has to be saved for last. Probably even more so than even in some of the main tour events where journeymen may have lost their hunger and desire.
At Q School that is not even a remote possibility.
Eliminate Thornton’ two double bogeys and the T34 finish improves, Also reducing the pressure in the final round and two shots would have been enough to get him close to one of the last places.
However Q School doesn’t do "If’s and buts".
Gareth Maybin looked as if he was on a roll after the 65 on Tuesday that earned him place inside the top 70.
Unfortunately in the final round the former University of South Alabama graduate’s scoring was average. Albeit he pushed up the leader board on Thursday only to card a double bogey amidst five birdies and unravelled any lingering hope that he could grab victory from the jaws of defeat
Golf seldom offers up hose fairy tales at this level and for Maybin it proved no exception.
Anyway the past few seasons have seen Maybin trifle too far down the ranking in the Race to Dubai given his natural golfing talent. With this year the inevitable falling his way and an unwelcome return to PGA Catalunya. A venue the Ballyclare man has avoided since first gaining his card.
For him 2015 may prove a strange twelve months on the one hand. Yet might allow him reinvigorate his game and future ambitions on another. The only downside being that the step down from weekly competition at the highest level may prove costly.
This season despite missing half the cuts Maybin bagged €190K from 25 starts.
A return to the Challenge Tour now – the place from whence he graduated - does not offer the same lucre. Or anything close for down the field finishes. So it may too become a commercial decision and depend on the generosity of sponsors.
All in all a very disappointing week for Irish golf generally, with Michael McGeady also eliminated after four rounds.
In short the new European Tour season – which will start in South Africa in a few weeks - Ireland will be field four less tour cards, with Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey and Damien McGrane bearing the torch for the nation. Until further recruits make it through a year from now.
If they do.
The worry is that that this year’s Q School flock were all vastly experienced. Contrasting with previous occasions. With McGeady the only one making it through the whole qualifying process as Lawrie, Maybin, Phelan, and Thornton were exempt to the Final Stage. A high number of hopefuls also failing in September at Stage 1 and then Stage 2 last week.
Further testament to Michael McGeady’s achievement this year. At thirty six years old Father Time looms large and so cannot be expected carry all future Irish hopes single-handedly. Thus leading to the real question. Where is that next generation?
Phelan is the last out of the traditional Walker Cup production line – along with Gavin Moynihan. For so long that trophy has delivered as far back as Jimmy Bruen to John McHenry, Padraig Harrington, Ronan Rafferty, Jonathan Caldwell, Michael Hoey, Rory McIlroy, Niall Kearney - to mention just a few.
Behind those names it has also been the US scholarship system that has seen the development of some. Graeme McDowell the best example. Or the likes of Philip Walton in his time at Oklahoma University. With Kevin Phelan of the University of North Florida the most recent case.
Over the years the European Tour has been the necessary apprenticeship for Darren Clarke; Eamonn Darcy; Christy O’Connor Snr, and Junior; Paul McGinley and Des Smyth. With countless others over the years. In fact anyone who was anyone had to make their way on the European Tour in the first instance with the latter years improved access to the PGA Tour offing opportunities.
Shane Lowry breaking the mould when he won the Irish Open in 2008 at the County Louth club
Now the production line seems to have halted.
Doing so at a time when Irish players have earned such a high profile globally and winning a number of majors in the past decade: Harrington’s three majors in 2007 and 2008; McDowell’s US Open in 2010; McIlroy's first the following year with Darren Clarke becoming Open Champion months later. The feats of the Wunderkind McIlroy these days befuddling every statistic known to Irish golf and an exception to the rule.
It seems beyond the current generation Irish golf is no longer a heavy weight with the Irish Q School statistics paling against those of Sweden, Spain and other European nations.
The loss of four players this season a clear message for those within the game to ponder.
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