Tournament: Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A
Road to Mallorca: Tournament 29 of 29
Venue: Club de Golf Alcanada, Port d’Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain
Prize Fund: EUR 500,000 (85,000)
Hashtag: #RolexGrandFinal #RoadtoMallorca
Tournament preview
Lucas Bjerregaard is hoping to put a tough couple of years behind him and complete a return to the DP World Tour when he tees it up at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada in Mallorca this week.
The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final is the 29th and final event on the Road to Mallorca, a season which has featured 19 different countries, and the field will battle it out for one of the 20 coveted DP World Tour cards.
The two-time DP World Tour winner lost his card in 2022 and considered walking away from the game earlier this year, however he has managed to turn around his form with five top ten finishes this season and he enters the Challenge Tour’s season finale in 20th position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
The 33-year-old has experienced both the highs and lows in his golfing journey after he won DP World Tour titles in 2017 and 2018, before making headlines the following year by defeating Tiger Woods in the quarter-finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and he is now focused on securing a return to golf’s Global Tour after a turbulent few years.
Six-time Challenge Tour winner Benjamin Hébert, who won the Rolex Grand Final in 2014, has the chance to etch his name into the history books this week by becoming the first player to win the event on two occasions.
Englishman John Parry and Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen both won three times on the Road to Mallorca this season to secure automatic promotion to the DP World Tour. The pair sit in first and second place on the Rankings respectively, and they return for the showpiece event in Mallorca in the hope of being crowned Challenge Tour Number One.
Neergaard-Petersen and South African Robin Williams, currently tenth on the Rankings, have earned category ten on the DP World Tour due to their performances on the 2024 Race to Dubai. Therefore, if they remain within the top 20 on the Road to Mallorca Rankings at the conclusion of the Rolex Grand Final, they will be treated as an addition to the 20 cards on offer, and the 19th and 20th cards will go to the players who finish 21st and 22nd on the Rankings.
The field has also been extended to the 47th person on the Rankings, South African Justin Walters, however Williams will not tee it up in Mallorca and therefore the field will be 46. Any player in the 46-man field can mathematically graduate, with the likes of Englishman Ben Schmidt (38th) and Denmark’s John Axelsen (46th) requiring strong performances to break into the all-important top 20.
The 29th edition of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final, which has been the season-ending event since 1995, will be broadcast live around the world for the third consecutive year.
The season finale gets under way at 8:33am local time on Thursday October 31, with Bjerregaard teeing it up alongside England’s Sam Hutsby at 11:01am.
Player Quotes
Lucas Bjerregaard: I started off the year with not much of a category out here on the Challenge Tour and actually played a bit of Nordic Golf League to start the year. I played on invites mostly at the beginning of the season, so it is great to be here at the Grand Final and it’s my second time playing this event. I’m really looking forward to the week and hopefully I can get my DP World Tour card back.
I’m trying to take it one day at a time and put in the work. I’ve taken a look back at the year I’ve had and a few months ago I didn’t think I would be in this position. This week means so much to all of us and it’s going to be difficult for most people so if I can handle the pressure a little bit better than them, I think that will be key.
I’ve probably been through more in my career than most of the guys here this week. There are a lot of up-and-coming players here and they are fearless. They haven’t experienced the hard times and just how difficult golf can be sometimes. Going through what I had to go through over the last few years will help me put things into perspective a little bit this week.
The golf course is a little different to what I was expecting this week. There’s quite a lot of wind and it will be important to be in play off the tee because you have to shape the ball both ways on this layout.
Benjamin Hébert: It’s my first time here, so I don’t know the course too well, but it looks great. I have nothing to lose this week, so I’ll try to stay with the same processes that I have for the last six months. It’s the last week of the season so I’ll give all my energy now and see what happens.
When you play on the Challenge Tour, your goal is to go on to the DP World Tour. In 2014 I was obviously younger for sure, but that was the second time I’d qualified from the Challenge Tour. When I came to the Grand Final I had already guaranteed promotion, but it was really good to win. The Grand Final is the best tournament of the year with the best players, so it’s always nice to be able to have a good result.
It’s obviously very difficult to win on the Challenge Tour, but I’ve had some good results this season and a win this week would be the cherry on top of the cake. My consistency has helped me to get into this position, but it would be nice to win.
John Parry: I’ve obviously had some highs this season winning three times on the Challenge Tour, but the biggest factor has been my consistency. I’ve never won multiple times in the same year so that was really pleasing for me.
I’m pretty relaxed this week because I’ve already got my card for next season so it’s a different feeling to when I’ve been here before. Obviously, I want to try and win the Rankings and finish the season as Challenge Tour Number One which is what has kept me motivated. I’ve played here before and had a good week, so I’ve got some nice memories here.
It’s been great to have played a few events on the DP World Tour over the last few weeks and get used to everything ahead of next season. My goal is to win out there next year and keep doing what I’ve been doing this year.
