European Tour Race to Dubai: The Race For The Top 117

As well as the battle at the top of the Race to Dubai standings, there is also a big race further down, as the top 117 players after this week retain their European Tour cards.

The Portugal Masters is the final tournament for those golfers around the 117 mark to make it into that bracket to keep their cards for the 2020 European Tour season and another shot to climb to the top of the Race to Dubai standings.

Nicolas Colsaerts was down there ahead of last week’s Open de France, but thanks to his first victory in seven years, the Belgian moved up from 114th to 53rd, and most importantly, safe once more.

Just 70 points split the 16 players in and around the mark of 117, with the majority of those in action this week in a battle to save their membership on the European Tour.

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The man who currently sits on the bubble is England’s Jack Singh Brar, who has only scored points in one of his last five events, as he finished in a tie for 23rd at the Mutuactivos Open de Espana.

He holds just a 0.7 point lead over Ireland’s Paul Dunne, who dropped out of the top 117 after the performances of Sweden’s Niklas Lemke and England’s Lee Slattery last week.

Those two both moved inside the cut-off line and now sit 111th and 115th, respectively, with a 16.6 and 10.6 point gap to the Irishman each.

Two men down there, in Abraham Ancer and Andres Romero, will not feature this week, but both play predominantly on the PGA TOUR, with the pair having featured just 19 times between them on the European Tour this season.

The record-setting ‘Mr.59’ also faces a battle this week. Oliver Fisher is the only man to shoot sub-60 on the European Tour, doing so at the Portugal Masters last year. However, he sits in 112th and will require a good result this week to make sure he stays on the Tour for 2020.

ALBUFEIRA, PORTUGAL – SEPTEMBER 21: Oliver Fisher of England celebrates with his scorecard after finishing with a round of 59, the first 59 scored on the European Tour during Day Two of the Portugal Masters at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course on September 21, 2018 in Albufeira, Portugal. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images) /

Clement Sordet is the other man that is currently safe, in 113th, having slowly accumulated points at three of his last five events. He has only finished under par at one of those, but that could be enough this week to keep him around for another year.

Now, we move below the cut-off line. Dunne sits in 118th, with Korea’s Jeunghun Wang a further 3.3 points behind him. He has shot up the Race to Dubai standings over the last five weeks, thanks to top ten finishes at both the Alfred Dunhill Links and the Italian Open, gaining 291 of his 411 points from those two finishes.

Chilean Hugo Leon has also been on a charge recently, thanks to the top 20 finishes in three of his last five events. He finished in a tie for 8th last week in France and now sits 120th on the Race to Dubai leaderboard, less than 5 points behind Singh Brar.

Justin Walters and Alexander Levy are on the exact same amount of points, 398.9, and need a decent performance to overhaul the 16.1 point gap they have to the Englishman.

The South African finished in the top ten at the Italian Open, while Levy has only made two cuts in his last five tournaments. Louis de Jager, Max Schmitt, and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano are also within 50 points of Singh Brar, with Bernd Ritthammer a further 5 points outside the cut-off line.

De Jager has only made the cut once in his last five events, while both Schmitt and GFC have struggled over the same period. Meanwhile, Ritthammer has had a T2 finish in the last two months, coming at the Porsche European Open. He earned 204 points from that results, over half of his entire season’s worth of points.

Looking at the tee times for the first couple of days in Portugal, and the majority of those on the bubble in the race for 117th are actually paired up. The bottom of the Race to Dubai standings are incredibly interesting.

The man on the cut-off line, Jack Singh Brar (117), will play alongside Niklas Lemke (111), while Clement Sordet (113) and Justin Walters (121) are also partnered up.

The trio of Oliver Fisher (112), Lee Slattery (115) and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (125) will play together on Thursday and Friday in Portugal.

The two right underneath the line, in Paul Dunne (118) and Jeunghun Wang (119) are with each other for the first two days, while Alexander Levy (122), Louis de Jager (123) and Max Schmitt (124) are also in a group of three.

Bernd Ritthammer (126) and Hugo Leon (120) will not play alongside other men in the race for 117th, and that could be useful at the halfway stage.

What about Ancer and Romero, the two men who currently sit above the cut-off line, but are not featuring in Portugal this week? Will the pair remain above the 117th mark come Sunday evening?

Next. PGA Tour: Three Weeks of Limited-Field, Star-Studded Events. dark

Standings Ahead of Portugal Masters:

(Those in bold do not feature this week)

111 (+6): Niklas Lemke (SWE) – 430.9
112 (+1): Oliver Fisher (ENG) – 428.9
113 (-3): Clement Sordet (FRA) – 428.5
114 (-3): Abraham Ancer (MEX) – 428.1
115 (+3): Lee Slattery (ENG) – 424.9
116 (-4): Andres Romero (ARG) – 424.6
117 (-2): Jack Singh Brar (ENG) – 415.0

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118 (-2): Paul Dunne (IRL) – 414.3
119 (+1): Jeunghun Wang (KOR) – 411.0
120 (+7): Hugo Leon (CHL) – 410.4
121 (-): Justin Walters (RSA) – 398.9
122 (-3): Alexander Levy (FRA) – 398.9
123 (-1): Louis de Jager (RSA) – 379.8
124 (-1): Max Schmitt (GER) – 374.0
125 (-): Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP) – 367.2
126 (-2): Bernd Ritthammer (GER): 360.0

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