Italy’s Francesco Laporta followed up his win at the Hainan Open with a wire-to-wire victory at the Challenge Tour Grand Final, in Mallorca. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

FRANCESCO Laporta secured a wire-to-wire victory at the Challenge Tour Grand Final at Mallorca’s Club de Golf Alcanada.

And in doing so finished the season as the 2019 Road to Mallorca No. 1, overtaking Scotland’s Calum Hill, who could not add to his two previous Challenge Tour wins in 2019.

The Italian battled testing conditions, which delayed the start of the final round and caused a suspension in the morning, to post a closing level-par 71.

His six-under total was good enough to win the Grand Final by two strokes from Germany’s Sebastian Heisele and Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist, who shared second place on four-under.

But Heisele made a putt for birdie at the last which would have handed Sciot-Siegrist solo second if he had missed – and the points to move the latter into the top 15 players,

Sciot Siegrist missed out on a European Tour card for 2020 by €1,419 in the end.

But it was Laporta’s second win in his last three starts after his victory at China’s Hainan Open last month.

Laporta joins the Challenge Tour Roll of Honour as Road to Mallorca No. 1, finishing more than 50,000 points ahead of Hill, who could only finish in a share of 27th, some 13 shots behind the champion.

Hampshire’s Richard Bland secured a return to the European Tour at the first time of asking by finishing third in the Road to Mallorca rankings, with Heisele’s tie for second place moving him up to fourth.

The 46-year-old Stoneham member – who earned promotion to the European Tour after his Challenge Tour Grand Final win in Bordeaux 18 years ago – will be looking to finally break his duck after more than 500 appearances without a maiden win at the top tier.

Adrian Meronk will become the first-ever Polish player to have full European Tour playing privileges in 2020 after finishing fifth on the rankings, while Lancashire’s Jack Senior and Robin Roussel finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Early season wins at the Challenge de España and Prague Golf Challenge earned Antoine Rozner eighth place.

Graduation was secured by Royal Liverpool’s Matthew Jordan in his rookie season by finishing ninth, while Portugal’s Ricardo Santos, Northern Ireland’s Cormac Sharvin and Wales’ Oliver Farr finished in the next three spots.

Holland’s Rolex Trophy winner Darius van Driel and Scot Connor Syme, who won the season-opener at the Turkish Airlines Challenge, cemented spots 13 and 14.

Spaniard Sebastian Garcia-Rodriguez earned the final European Tour card by finishing in 15th position.

It was a nail-biting end to the day for the Spaniard, who posted rounds of 76 and 77 over the weekend.

Garcia-Rodriguez was forced to watch as Sciot-Siegrist missed a birdie putt on the final hole, before seeing Heisele get down safely for par in the final group of the day.

Had the German missed, Sciot-Siegrist would have finished solo second behind Laporta and leapfrogged Garcia-Rodriguez into the final graduation spot.

The Frenchman was only 1,369 points behind Garcia Rodriguez and he was followed by Ben Stow and Wil Besseling, who finished 17th and 18th respectively.

The first European Tour events the Class of 2019 will be eligible to play in will be the Hong Kong Open and the Alfred Dunhill Championship, which both take place from November 28-December 1.

•The third and final stage of the European Tour Qualifying School will take place at Lumine, in Spain, later this week, when another 25 cards will be up for grabs.

To see the results from stage two – play at Alenda Golf and Club de Golf Bonmont was distrupted over the weekend – click here.

The players who finished in the top 15 in the Road to Mallorca rankings who earned a European Tour card for 2020. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

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Italy’s Francesco Laporta held on to his one-shot lead at the Challenge Tour Grand Final at Mallorca’s Alcanada Golf Club. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

FRANCESCO Laporta held on to his narrow lead at the halfway stage of the Challenge Tour Grand Final, at Mallorca’s Club de Golf Alcanada.

And the Italian is in pole position to be crowned Road to Mallorca No. 1 after a two-under par second round of 69 left him in pole position with two rounds to play.

Laporte’s round moved him to five-under in total, one stroke clear of Spain’s Sebastian Garcia-Rodriguez and two ahead of Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist.

But Surrey’s Ross McGowan posted a bogey-free 66 to move into sixth with a further move up the leaderboard in his sights on Saturday.

McGowan who won the 2009 Madrid Open on the European Tour and has three more wins on the Challenge Tour to his name, said: “The greens were slower today.

“The wind was probably a bit stronger yesterday and the greens were quicker. I think I had four three-putts and really struggled on them.

“Today, I putted a lot better,” said the Banstead GC member who lost his card on the European Tour back in 2011, but won the D+D REAL Czech Challenge in May.

“The wind was still up pretty early doors. I had to hit three-wood into the first after a good drive, whereas yesterday we had pretty calm conditions during the first few holes,” said McGowan.

“The wind was going in a different direction today and it made a few holes on the back nine a little bit easier.

“I think 13 and 14, which were really tough yesterday, were easier today because we could hit irons in there – and it was much more favourable.

“I need two more of the same over the weekend and I’ll take that right now,” McGowan added.

“I think I’ve just got to carry on what I was doing today. I had much more focus and with the greens, I was seeing the speed a lot better.”

The low round of the day – and the week so far – belonged to Somerset’s Laurie Canter, who bounced back from an opening round of 80 with a 65.

After 36 holes on the Balearic island, current projections show the top 15 – who will earn a European Tour card for 2020 come Sunday – would be unchanged if the tournament were to have end this afternoon.

Darius van Driel is still clinging onto the last card, but several players have given themselves a shot of glory with two rounds remaining over the weekend on the Spanish holiday island.

Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson is the man best-placed to break into the graduation spots.

The Glasgow Walker Cup player’s second consecutive level par round of 71 moved him into a tie for seventh place heading into the weekend – and 16th on the Road to Mallorca rankings, just 4,854 points behind van Driel.

But Laporta, the winner of last month’s Hainan Open, in China, is the man they have to beat to earn the biggest winners’ prize of the season.

Laporta, who has only missed the cut once in his last 16 events, said: “It was a bit more windy today.

“We had the wind for the entire 18 holes, whereas yesterday it came down for around five or six holes.

“It wasn’t easy – the greens were a bit slower and less firm. There were some tough pin positions and the other guys played solid, so it was a good game.

“Everyone enjoyed the round and we had a good fight. Hopefully we’ll have another good fight tomorrow.

“I’m going to practice a bit this afternoon, then I’m going to go and play PlayStation.”

Nearest challenger Garcia-Rodriguez said: “I played very solid on the front nine although the putter wasn’t working perfectly.

“But on the back nine I played lovely. I had two chip-ins, on the 13^th and 15^th and the rest of the holes I played so well,” said the Spaniard, who would love to win on home soil.

“I just stuck to the process to turn it around today. Check the wind, make a good swing – that was my key. There will be a lot of people here this weekend cheering me on, why not go for the win?”

European Tour card battle goes to to last hole

SCIOT-Siegrist knows the race to be crowned overall champion will almost certainly go to the wire, especially if the winds which were forecasted to reach 30mph on Friday, turn out stronger than the 10mph expected over the weekend.

“Anything can happen, literally. I know I’m far off in the rankings and that I need to finish top two or better,” said Sciot-Siegrist.

“But I came here this week knowing I needed to finish top two and I started to play well a couple weeks ago – and then seeing this course… I like this course.

“There are just a lot of things that tell you that something can happen, but it’s the top players on the Challenge Tour playing this week and you know it’s going to be tough… but we’ll see.

“There’s a lot of wind and the course is very tricky. I struggle on easy courses because target golf is not really something that I do very well.

“This is just the kind of course that makes you frustrated, you need to think a little bit about your shots, and then the wind comes in, it’s like a British Amateur.”

Germany’s Sebastian Heisele and Royal Liverpool’s Matthew Jordan, who both looked to have secured their European Tour playing privileges for next year, share fourth place on two-under.

The third round at Club de Golf Alcanada will begin at 7.30am GMT, with the top three of Laporta, Garcia Rodriguez and Sciot-Siegrist making up the final group who go out at 10.05am.

•Follow live scoring by clicking here.

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