Testing times for Sam (From Swindon Advertiser)

Testing times for Sam

10:15am Saturday 10th December 2011 in Golf By Andrew Warren

SWINDON golfer Sam Matton is facing the most important weekend of his career as he prepares to take part in the final stage of the European Tour qualifying school.

The first year professional is in Girona, Spain, bidding to win one of 30 places on the tour from a field of 156 players.

The Marlborough player will tee off this morning in what he hopes will be the first of six rounds at the PGA Catalunya resort, aiming to realise his dream having flourished at amateur level and representing England as an Under 21 and A member.

The field is split over the first four days, playing two rounds on each of the Stadium and Tour courses, before a cut at 70 plus ties precedes 36 nail-biting holes on the Stadium Course over the final two days as players strive for the line.

The Stadium course, which opened in 1999 and hosted the Spanish Open in both 2000 and 2009, has been listed in the top 100 courses on the planet by Golf World magazine for the past two years.

Last year’s qualifying school champion Simon Wakefield will attempt to triumph again after narrowly losing his tour card last season, and will be joined by Nick Dougherty, who will be hoping to rediscover the form which saw him capture three European Tour titles, most recently at the 2009 BMW International Open.

Other European Tour champions in attendance include England’s Paul Broadhurst, Alastair Forsyth of Scotland, American Anthony Kang and Dutchman Maarten Lafeber, who between them have laid claim to ten titles.

Matton and the rest of the field have already made it through two rounds of qualifying to make it to Girona, but fellow Swindon player Martin Sell missed out in a place in the final round after being knocked out in the second stage of qualifying.

Playing at the Las Colinas Golf and Country Club in Alicante, Sell hit an impressive two under par on the opening round with three birdies, before a four over on his second left him with an up-hill struggle to make it through. He hit three bogies and two double bogies during a tough round, but improved to hit rounds of par and one under before the end, but was just off the pace.