European Tour Rookie Simon Thornton received good news today following the first re-rank of the season when he moved up 10 places in Category 11 to hold 18th place. The former Royal County Down Assistant Professional had been hoping to do even better and already had the re-rank in his sights when he committed to the Madeira Islands Open BPI - Portugal, the weekend his first child was due.
Last weekend’s event in Mallorca though was the final chance for those players who earned their cards at the 2009 Qualifying School, or through finishing 11th to 20th in the Challenge Tour Rankings, to improve their ranking, with the second opportunity coming in August.
Having started his first season on the Tour in difficult personal circumstances - given the untimely passing of his Father in January - Thornton stuck to his schedule and played the Africa Open ahead of the funeral - as he had agreed with his Father. Understandably Thornton missed the cut.
Having flown home for the funeral he then returned to make the cut at the Jo’Burg Open with a 17th place finish. In the subsequent two events, the Open de Andalucia and in Madeira Islands he also made the cut garnering valuable pay cheques in both. However at the Open de España in Seville, Thornton had a poor second round missing his first cut in months.
He then travelled to a very rainy Turin for the BMW Italian Open only to suffer the same fate after two poor rounds.
On arriving in Mallorca last weekend Thornton was looking for a timely reversal to his fortunes only to be forced to withdraw midway through the first round due to a back injury - which intense physio therapy could not improve.
For Gary Murphy though the bad news continues who battled hard last week by leading the Irish challengers in Mallorca – even reaching 3rd place on day 1 – to suffer a major setback with a nightmare collapse on Friday afternoon after carding a 79 to miss his 11th cut of the season.
Having qualified in 17th place at “Q School” he now drops to 28th place and moves in the reverse direction to Thornton as he was outside the top 20 money earners in Category 11.
The real story though is Alejandro Cañizares of Spain who topped the first Re-Rank of 2010 after the Iberdrola Open Cala Millor Mallorca - which he lost on a play off – with €280,000 in prize money, mostly of which was the result of a second place finish at the Open de España.
The first event to be affected by the re-rank will next week’s Madrid Masters.
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