Denmark teenager Nicholai Højgaard took the first round lead in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters’ first visit to Education City Golf Club, with a superb 64. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

DENMARK’S teenage prodigy Nicolai Højgaard produced a remarkable run of scoring on the back nine to take the first round lead at the 2020 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

Nicolai is looking to follow brother Rasmus into the winner’s circle – having announced himself on the professional stage when he finished second to Sergio Garcia at last season’s KLM Open.

Since then Nicholai – and identical twin brother Rasmus – whom he played with when the won the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championship two years ago – have been blazing a trail on the European Tour.

Rasmus came through European Tour Qualifying School and then won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open on his European Tour debut in December, becoming the third youngest winner in its history,

Today, it was Nicolai’s time to shine at Education City Golf Club.

The 18-year-old turned in one-under but then made six birdies in eight holes from the 10th as he came home in 29 and hit the summit at seven-under after a 64.

Nicolai Højgaard said: “It was a good day. I started out slow – was playing really bad on the first four, five, six holes.

“I was still two-under at that point. But I was just playing it all over the place. My putter was just on fire today – that’s the difference.

“When I came to the back nine I was hitting fairways, hitting it close and rolling the putter,” said Nicholai, who also played in the Junior Ryder Cup in France, two years ago.

“You just hit the button and you keep going. I was hitting the fairway, I was hitting greens, I was getting close on the par fives.

“My putter was just the difference today. I was playing okay with the long game but I was just holing everything.

“The back nine is a bit more tricky off the tee so I would say it was more of a three-wood on the back nine, I was hitting a lot of three-woods and it was pretty good.”

Sullivan in chasing pack in Qatar

DUTCHMAN Joost Luiten was a shot back of leader Nicolai Højgaard and one ahead of a group of six players including Warwickshire’s Andy Sullivan, the 2016 Ryder Cup player, who won three times in 2015, but has not added to that success since.

Luiten said: “I am absolutely pleased. Seven birdies and one dropped shot, it wasn’t really needed that dropped shot coming out of the middle of the fairway.

“But on a golf course like this where it is really tricky on and around the greens, I was out of position, so sometimes you just have to accept the bogey. All in all, I am happy with my game.”

Luiten preferred not to spend too much time practising in the build-up because of strong winds in Doha, on Tuesday and Wednesday,

“I didn’t do a lot of practise because you can ask yourself if it really helps if you hit into a 50mph wind on the range?

“So I tried to stay away from it and played the course, get to know it a bit better and it was beautiful today.

“I think on the golf course if you are in the fairway you can be pretty aggressive to the undulated greens.

“I hit my irons and driver beautiful today which created a lot of chances and I rolled in a couple of putts.”

Spaniards Jorge Campillo and Carlos Pigem, Italy’s Lorenzo Gagli, Belgian Thomas Pieters, and another Dane in the shape of Jeff Winther all carded five-under par 66s to join Sullivan in a share of third place.

•For live scores in the second round of the Qatar Masters click here.

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David Langley is currently top of the Journey to Jordan Order of Merit on the MENA Tour and can earn a start on the Euoropean Tour at the Trophee Hassan II, in June, this week.

IT promises to be a fascinating battle between David Langley and David Hague in this week’s $75,000 Journey to Jordan No. 2, with a European Tour start up for grabs.

The English duo are chasing the big reward of a spot in the European Tour’s Trophee Hassan II.

The Order of Merit leader at the end of the first five events on the 2020 MENA Tour receives an invitation to the €2.5million Trophee Hassan II, in Morocco from June 4-7.

The lucky player will also receive free accommodation in the official hotel for that week.

After the fourth leg of the season, Journey to Jordan No. 1 winner Langley currently leads the Order of Merit with $24.909 – a lead of $784 over Hague winner of the Royal Golf Club Bahrain Open, who has earned $24,125 so far this season.

The equation is simple. With $400 assured for the last-placed player in the tournament, Hague will have to finish inside a two-way tie for the 12^th place to have any chance of overtaking Langley.

Having won at the Greg Norman-designed Ayla Golf Club last month, Langley, from Berkshire’s Castle Royle GC, probably starts as a pre-tournament favourite.

Yorkshireman Hague missed the cut at Ayla in his first start as a professional golfer, having opened with a disappointing 81.

However, current form would give the Malton & Norton GC member an advantage heading into Journey to Jordan No. 2, which starts today (Monday).

Last year’s Lee Westwood Trophy winner finished first in Bahrain with three solid rounds in windy conditions, last week.

Meanwhile his 25-year-old rival from Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, endured a tough final round in the same tournament and recorded a 79.

Langley, who lost his father to a long-term illness late in 2019, said: “Absolutely. The spot in Morocco is on my mind and if someone else in my situation says they are not thinking about it, they’d probably be lying.

“But it is not something that is going to control my shots during the tournament. It is something you think outside of it. I will be focused on each shot that I hit when I play the tournament.

“I have very happy memories of this golf course, and obviously, having played it quite a few times, I am very familiar with it.

“I drove the ball very well and made almost every putt from inside 10 feet when I won the Journey to Jordan No. 1, and I will have to do pretty much the same again this week,” said the former England amatuer international.

David Hague (left) with Chris Garrity, general manager of the host club and Saud Al Sharif, the low amateur in the MENA Tour’s Royal Golf Club Bahrain Open

Hague, who turned pro after MENA Tour Qualifying School at the same venue, said he did not touch his clubs after playing the pro-am in Bahrain a day after his victory.

“I got into Aqaba only last night after facing a few travel issues and Sunday was the first day I actually practiced.

“It’s been a crazy couple of days with so many messages from friends and people I know. I am so looking forward to going back home next week, but I have a job to do before that,” said Hague, who was a team-mate of Hague at the 2018 Home Internationals.

“I won’t say Morocco is my top priority right now. I am pretty good at taking every competition as it comes.

“It’s just a consequence of playing well and that’s what I’d be focused on this week.

“I did not have a great start to my professional career here, but I am looking forward to competing on this course,” added Hague, who was a junior at the same North Yorkshire club as European Tour winner Simon Dyson.

“I think I was too aggressive here the last time and threw away a few shots through careless mistakes. That’s something I want to avoid.

Langley and Hague have been paired together for the first two rounds and start their campaigns on Monday at 9.20am local time.

•To follow live scoring in the Journey to Jordan No. 2 click here.

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The top five players at the Staysure Tour Qualifying School, who earn their cards for 2020, including Michael Long (centre). Picture by GETTY IMAGES

NEW Zealand’s Michael Long was the only player to card four consecutive sub-70 rounds as he won the Staysure Tour Qualifying School Final Stage by two shots at Pestana Golf Resort.

The Kiwi was rock solid from the outset and saved his best for last, signing for rounds a 66 to finish on 14-under in a pressure-packed week on the Algarve.

Five players earned Staysure Tour cards for the 2020 season and while Long’s earlier rounds of 67, 68 and 69, suggested he would card 70 or more on the final day, he held his nerve to outgun his rivals.

Long said: “I’ve been lucky. I’ve been pretty much exempt on most tours that I’ve played on.

“I think the last time I had a successful tour school was in 1992 or 1991, and that was down in Australia. I’ve failed a couple times in Final Stage on the US tour.

“I can’t believe it really. This is completely out of the blue. It’s a lot of really good players out here, and if you can’t smile now, when can you?

“It’s just nice to come out on top of a top quality field,” added Michael Long.

The 51-year old, who has competed in 99 European Tour events in his career, has eight professional victories to his name.

Sharing second place on 12-under were Scottish amateur Euan McIntosh and Canada’s former PGA Tour player David Morland IV.

The two players spent the majority of Final Stage inside the all-important top five and like Long, will now compete in their rookie seasons on the Staysure Tour.

McIntosh, who won the 2018 Scottish Amateur Championship, said: “I play a lot of high-end amateur events with guys that are going to be winning European Tour events, and I’ve been doing that for the last three years.

“It’s been a really good grounding, these young guys have been amazing.

“They’ve pushed me on to get my golf to the level it’s at now. Without their help, and their competitiveness, I wouldn’t be here right now.

“The strange thing is, I’m sad in a way to be leaving the amateur ranks,” admitted McIntosh, who at the start of 2019 harboured real hopes of playing in a Walker Cup at the age of 50, having been named in Craig Watson’s provisional squad.

Euan said: “I’ve got a lot of friends, because I play for Scotland, and now I’m not going to be doing that ever again.

“It’s great, but there’s a bit of sadness there,” said McIntosh, who won the Tennant Cup a year ago – the oldest amateur strokeplay competition in the world.

But there was disappointment for another Scot – Aberdeen’s Scott Henderson, who missed out on a shoot-out for the final card by a shot, after the 1997 European Tour Rookie of the Year finished with a second consecutive 68.

McIntosh will now turn professional and join Paul Lawrie, Andrew Oldcorn and Gary Orr in the European Senior Tour ranks.

Meanwhile Morland IV will bring the professional experience he has gained from two wins on the Nationwide Tour – the PGA’s feeder tour – as the two players further strengthen the quality of golf in Europe’s senior ranks.

Morland, who had led Long by a shot going into the fourth round, said: “I’ve played all over the world from Asia, South America, Canada, mostly in the US, but I haven’t played that much in Europe.

“So I’m looking forward to it this year. You’re going to have all the top European players that played at the same time frame that I did.

“The quality of golf is there so I’m just looking forward to playing all over Europe.”

Raitt ready for return to big time

SURREY’S Andrew Raitt, who competed in 132 European Tour events between 1999 and 2010, finished alone in fourth place on 10-under par.

That sealed the Weybridge player’s own rookie Staysure Tour season thanks to a final round of 67, which kept him inside the qualification number.

Raitt, who was forced to quit the European Tour in 2007, was delighted to earn another crack at the big time.

“I played the European Tour for seven or eight years but struggled a lot with injuries and stuff like that,” said Raitt, who underwent surgery on a finger injury after being bitten by a dog back in 1995.

“This is a new lease of life. I’ve been looking forward to it and trying to work towards this,” added Raitt, who was only awarded £4,500 in a complicated court battle over the injury, which he pursued for a seven-figure compensation claim, in 2002..

“I’ve had a lot of help from people at home, the golf club have been brilliant so all the members from St George’s Hill, thank you very much.

“It feels good to pay them back and give them something to root for this year.”

Raitt – the 1986 English Schoolboys Champion who claimed the Surrey Amateur Championship in 1993 – ended up with a little finger that was 0.5cms shorter after the operation.

But a High Court judge dismissed his £6million claim which alleged it cost him a career at the top, including his ambition to play in the Ryder Cup.

Raitt’s legal costs were estimated at £100,000.

Suneson seals Staysure return in play-off

THE battle for the fifth and final card required extra holes as Spain’s Carl Suneson fellow countryman Victor Casado and Surrey’s Gary Marks were deadlocked on eight-under after 72 holes.

Suneson birdied the first play-off hole – the par four 17th, to seal a return to the Staysure Tour for a third time.

The Gran Canaria pro – who played for England as an amateur in the late 1980s before adopting his father’s citizenship in 1996 – is the only qualifying school graduate who will not be a rookie in 2020.

Suneson. who played for Engand as an amateur between 1988 and 1989 before turning pro in 1990, said: “To get the fifth card is fantastic.

“There was pressure, but I did it and I’m happy. I wanted to get the play-off finished quickly, and I was able to hit three great shots.

“I’ve had shoulder problems for the last two-and-a-half years, but I’ve been doing physio and slowly getting things tuned in,” added Suneson, whose only professional win in 20 years on the European Tour came in the 2007 Open Saint Omer.

But Suneson did pick up five wins on the Challenge Tour between 1995 and 2006 and his best Staysure Tour finish came in 2019 – his third year on Tour, when he was sixth at December’s MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius, the final event of the year.

•To see the final results from Pestana click here.

Losing out to Els at Johnnie Walker Classic after putting penalty was Long, Long time ago

MICHAEL Long’s career could have been different but he called a penalty on himself when challenging Ernie Els for the 1997 Johnnie Walker Classic.

He accidentally moved the ball while lining up a birdie putt – but after no one noticed, he admitted his trangression to his playing partner before taking two more putts.

Michael Long finished one behind Els at Queensland’s Hope Island after that double bogey.

His most recent was the PGA Tour of Australasia’s 2018 Western Australia PGA Championship.

Long will now look to continue his winning ways in his rookie season against Europe’s best senior golfers.

He joins former US Open winner Michael Campbell on the Staysure as they look to repeat the success of New Zealand legend Bob Charles.

The left-hander won 23 times on the PGA Champions Tour, in the States, including his sole European victory at the 1993 Senior Open, at Royal Lytham.

The post Michael Long stays in the red to secure Staysure card with Raitt, Morland and McIntosh appeared first on Golf North.

Benjamin Poke lost one stroke of his three-shot lead at the European Tour Qualifying School at Lumine GC, in Spain’s Tarragona. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

THE battle to earn European Tour playing privileges will go down to the wire with 22 players within three shots of the all-important 25th position.

Meanwhile Benjamin Poke posted a two-under par 69 retain the lead at the European Tour Qualifying School Final Stage after 90 holes over five days.

Poke said: “I’ve just tried to approach every round and every day in the same way and just hit one shot at a time.

“A few ups and downs out there but that is golf, and there is no day that is the same, so overall, I’m really happy with today’s performance.

“I was feeling the nerves a little bit at the start, but once I got it going it just felt like another day out on the golf course.

“I was just enjoying playing golf. I had some nice playing partners and we just talked along the way.

“Four back-to-back birdies is always nice to get your game going as well, and I managed to hole the putts over the opening few holes which gave me some good momentum.

“I hit my second shot on the ninth a little right and it managed to plug itself in the edge of the bunker.

“So I got a little bit unlucky there. But I thought ‘that’s just how it is sometimes’ and again I just tried to keep my eye on the next shot.

“The strategy tomorrow is just to keep doing all the same things we’ve been doing all week.

“We have a good game plan on how to approach the course and in that way circumstances don’t really change. So, if we do that, then we will make a good score and we take it as it comes.”

The Dane has set the pace at Lumine Golf Club since the second round and the 26-year-old will head into the final round atop the leaderboard on 18-under.

Poke is currently nine shots inside the cut-off for a European Tour card, with the top 25 and ties earning full playing status for 2020, following the conclusion of Wednesday’s sixth and final round.

Essex’s Dale Whitnell, whose breakthrough win on the Challenge Tour came in September’s KPMG Trophy, sits nervously in the crucial 25th place, alongside Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Caldwell.

Both will desperately want to be at least in that spot come tomorrow. afternoon, while Northumberland’s 2013 Amateur Champion Garrick Porteous is in 20th spot after a second successive 68, also faces an anxious last day.

Poke is two strokes ahead of Finland’s Sami Valimaki and three ahead of Frenchman Adrien Saddier and India’s SSP Chawrasia, who share third place on 15-under.

Valimaki said: “It’s been a really good five days for me, especially today I started really well going two-under on my first four holes, which let me breathe a little bit.

“It wasn’t great to bogey the last hole, but to shoot three-under is pretty good.

“Tomorrow, I just have to feel really comfortable and start again. I’ve been hitting the ball really well, so I’ll just have to keep letting the putter make the short ones and see where it leaves me at the end of the day.”

Spaniard Alejandro Cañizares, one of last year’s Qualifying School joint-winners, is one of six men who share fifth place on 14-under.

That group also includes three-time European Tour winner Grégory Havret, Yorkshire’s Marcus Armitage, Sussex’s Toby Tree, Canada’s Aaron Cockerill and Korean Jinho Choi.

Havret, who has won three times on the European Tour since turning pro in 1999, said: “You feel good when you play well, especially in this kind of week.

“It’s long, it’s physically and mentally not easy, but that’s what you have to deal with.

“After last year I still wanted to play golf and I had the opportunity to play the Challenge Tour and I think it’s a great Tour.

“I wanted to play a full year there and try to get back to the European Tour through the Challenge Tour, instead of playing a few European Tour events and a few Challenge Tour events.

“I thought it was good to stick on one Tour, and I really enjoyed it, I must say,” added Havret who beat Phil Mickelson in a play-off to win the 2007 Scottish Open, at Loch Lomond, and was runner-up in the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach.

“To be tied fifth after five rounds of a professional golf tournament is pretty good, but there are still 18 holes to go and anything can happen,” said Havret.

“The important thing is that I keep focusing on the same things I have all season on the Challenge Tour and all week here at Q-School.”

Aaron Cockerill, who has had two top fives on the Challenge Tour this year, said: “It was a good finish with the eagle at the last.

“It’s funny, I shot one worse today than I did yesterday, but I feel so much better because yesterday I was six-under through 10, and kind of bled in.

“And today, I was four-under on the last five holes and it just feels so much better. Now I’m just looking forward to tomorrow,” said the 27-year-old who has been playing on the PGA Cananda Tour.

Somerset’s Laurie Canter is well placed in 12th place after an excellent 66 while Lincolnshire’s David Coupland, a graduate from the EuroPro Tour in 2018, is in 20th, on 10-under.

Fichardt jumps 50 places after superb 64

THE biggest mover of the day was five-time European Tour winner Darren Fichardt, who posted a sublime seven-under par 64 to move from the cut-line into a tie for 16th place.

Fichardt said: “I needed that, big time. The first few rounds have been very frustrating.

“I’ve been playing well and simply haven’t been making the putts, so it was nice to hit a few really close and have some tap-in birdies on the front nine – and then just close it out on my back nine.

“I just wanted to keep giving myself the chances this morning and hope that the putts kept dropping, so I did better than that.

“My front nine was really tricky, it was really windy so for me to turn in five under was unbelievable really.

“I was just trying to be more aggressive and pitch it closer to the hole – and I found myself hitting it in really close,” added Fichardt.

That leap up the leaderboard offers the South African a great opportunity to regain his playing privileges after finishing 130th this year in the Race to Dubai.

Forty-four-year-old Fichardt has five wins on the European Tour since 2001 – including the Joburg Open two years ago, but finished 130th on the Race to Dubai with his winner’s exemption ending this month.

While those near the top of the leaderboard will be looking to consolidate their position during the final round of the tournament, there are still plenty of players aiming for a last-minute breakthrough into the top 25.

Kent’s Steven Tiley and Spain’s Pedro Oriol both carded three-under par 68s to move into a tie for 33rd place, just one stroke outside the top 25, while Ireland’s Niall Kearney and Scotland’s Daniel Young each posted four-under par 67s to join the group on the cusp of the qualification spots.

The final round will begin at 8am UK time on Wednesday, when the top 25 players and ties after the close of play will earn life-changing European Tour cards for the 2020 season.

•For live scoring from the final round at Lumine, click here.

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