12 Australasians earn Asian Tour cards
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2009 Asian Tour Q-School - Final Stage | Round Five | 17 Jan 2009
Japan’s Daisuke Maruyama and England’s Ally Mellor have finished atop the leaderboard at the completion of 90 holes of qualifying for the 2009 Asian Tour but 11 Australians and one New Zealander also have a place to play in 2009.
Maruyama claimed the top position when he defeated Mellor at the second extra hole.
38-year-old Maruyama, who played the PGA Tour for two years and who has won on the Japan Golf Tour put together a final round of 68 to finish with a total of 353.
32-year-old Mellor also finished with a round of 68 to share the honours. Mellor has battled away on the European Challenge Tour in the past two years but now has access to the increasingly lucrative Asian Tour and should he do well there then access also to an increasing number of co-sanctioned European Tour events.
Mellor and Maruyama finished one shot clear of Colombian Eduardo Herrera who has a chance to rekindle his career in a region where he has had success previously. Herrera played in Asia and Japan earlier in his career winning five events in Japan in 1990’s before briefly joining the PGA Tour.
Peter Cooke and Matthew Griffin were the best of the Australasians finishing in a share of 9th. For Cooke this represents a return to the Asian Tour where he played in 2008 while for Griffin he has an Asian Tour card just three months after turning professional.
Michael Light finished one shot behind his fellow countrymen with a brilliant final round of 66 moving him from 38th to 12th and not only earning his card but a much stronger status than was the case 24 hours earlier.
Australian Kim D. Ho put together two strong final rounds to grab a share of 15th position and access to the Asian Tour.
Another Australian to earn a card was Matthew Griffin’s Eisenhower teammate Tim Stewart, who turned professional in November and sealed his fate with a fine last round of 67 to finish 17th.
New Zealander Mark Purser, and Chris Gaunt are also safe after sharing 19th position, Adam Le Vesconte and Jason Norris were 26th, Chris Campbell 30th, Adam Groom and Rohan Blizard 33rd, these players rounding out the successful leading 40 players who have status in Asia in 2009.
The unlucky losers included Heath Reed, Brad Lamb and James McLean who all missed by an agonising one shot and Nathan Main who, despite a last round of 68, missed by two.
The first event that these players will be eligible is likely to be the Asian Tour International in Thailand from February 5th – 8th.
