Asian Tour Qualifying School: Day Five - European casualties

Europeans who missed out after the 5th round: Craig Smith & Pasi Puthonen 41st=, Paul Grannell 55th=, Simon Dunn & Lars Johansson 60th=, Yasin Ali 75th=, Ross Bain & Steven Tiley 80th=, Steve Parry 88th, Mark Mouland 89th.

The most heart-breaking tale of the last day was Craig Smith’s after he shot a fabulous 67 – the joint best score of the day – and missed a Tour Card by a single shot.

The stories of Ross Bain and Mark Mouland were also sad because both seemed to run out of steam in the last few rounds.  Bain was the first round leader but faded after two rounds while Mouland in particular suffered on day five with an 82, the joint worst round of the final day.

It’s a long way for Europeans to travel and be disappointed, but this Q School event shows that golf around the world is now at an incredibly high standard.  There are no easy tours to play on and each Q School will find the weaknesses in even the best player’s game.

The next Q Schools on the world calendar are the Canadian Tour in March and the EuroPro in April.  I’ll have more on them in a few weeks.

Ross Biddiscombe is author of Golf On The Edge: Triumphs & Tragedies Of Q School

Where next?

Asian Tour Qualifying School - How it happened: Day one, day two, day three, day four

New equipment: The new TaylorMade R9 driver
Tour news: Paul Casey wins Abu Dhabi Golf Championship  
Equipment blog: Robert Karlsson - What's in the bag?