25th October 2015 | Alps Tour Golf
Best scenario for Van Der Vaart
Jurrian Van Der Vaart of the Netherlands with his trophy. Credit: Tristan Jones
Netherlands’ Jurrian Van Der Vaart won the inaugural Edmond de Rothschild Israel Masters with -4 total after tournament has been reduced to 36 holes due to lightening threat.
Sports and golf especially are full of great stories, but this week, this story could be titled one man’s joy is another one’s sorrow. Van Der Vaart, 25th at the beginning of the week finished 5th at the ranking and France’s Matt Pavon lost his right to play as he slept from the precious 5th position to the 6th.
« Well this is not a way you want a tournament to finish – said Van Der Vaart – but the position I am in and the fact that I finished 5th on the order of merit now is a perfect senario for me. Althought I would have liked to play one extra round, I got qualifying school next week and that is big for me. I can move on to the main Tour which is the future. The more rounds I get in terrible circontances, like today with the wind and the rain, it would have been a really good test. But just for this week, I am happy.
I know that many Dutch people are watching results on the Alps Tour but that has nothing to do with me, all the credit goes to Darius. Darius Van Driel finished first, he had an amazing season, I don’t think people realise how hard it is to consistenly play in the top 10 and he played consistenly in the top 2 ; he had 5 times second I believe and he won, nobody has ever done that on the Alps Tour or any other Satellite Tours. I think he is the best player in Europe not playing on the Challenge Tour. »
Darius Van Driel is the first player from Holland to win the Alps Tour order of merit ever. He recorded multiple runner up places before finally won in France end of September.
« After the break, I finally got my brain together and that really helped get a lot of top 3 finishes and one win and i must the last 2 tournaments was a bit of a struggle for me but in the end you don’t want to finish like a tournament and a seasonlike this but my goal coming to Isreal was to remain first on the order of merit and that happened and on to Stage 2 and maybe I can help some guys out who are in the 6th or 7th position of the ranking to get their card for Challenge Tour as well.
We have spent the all season together and I have to say I feel sorry for Matt Pavon who a really nice guy. »
The point is that if one of the top 5 players makes the cut in the European Tour Q School Final Stage, he allows the next player in the ranking to take his spot.
The five players graduated to play the Challenge Tour next year are Dutch Darius Van Driel, England’s Josh Loughrey, France’s Damien Perrier, England’s Harry Casey and Netherlands’ Jurrian Van Der Vaart.
From Isreal
Agathe Séron
