Caldwell wins first EuroPro title at Moor Allerton
Jonathan Caldwell finally landed his first HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour title, taking home the Clipper Logistics Championship at Moor Allerton with three birdies in his final four holes.
Caldwell (Clandeyboye: 70, 64, 69) has finished inside the top five on eight occasions in five years, but beat Kevin Harper (East Devon Golf Club: 69, 69, 66) holing a nervy short putt for the title in Leeds.
The win lifts him inside the Race To Desert Springs top five, a position which is rewarded with a 2017 Challenge Tour card at the end of the season. “It feels great,” said Caldwell, who took home £10,000 along with a new Motocaddy S1 Lithium trolley, Bushnell Tour X Range Finder and Bolle Sunglasses. “It has been a long time coming after a few near misses, so it feels special.
“It is satisfying to win with birdies at three of the last four, rather than to stumble over the line. The top five has been a goal of mine throughout the year, and I have done that now – better late than never.”
The top 60 on the Race To Desert Springs will now be invited to play the season-ending Tour Championship at Desert Springs Resort in Spain.
Among those invited to the season-finale, which carries an increased prize fund of £90,000, are a number of players from the North East and Yorkshire. With £20,000 going to the winner, any one of the 60-man field could finish inside the top five and earn promotion to the Challenge Tour.
Sheffield’s James Maw leads the contingent in seventh place on the Race To Desert Springs. James Wilkinson (Penrith Golf & FootCare Centre), Joe Dean (Hillsborough Golf Club), Jonathan Thomson (Rotherham) and Alex Wrigley (Hartlepool Golf Club) are also inside the top 15 and know a good end to the season could see them secure promotion to Europe’s second-tier tour.
2017
The HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour has announced it will stage its first event of the 2017 season on the Lee Westwood Colt Course at Close House, the first time the tour has shared a venue with the European Tour in the same year.
The tournament will be the third time Europe’s third-tier satellite tour has visited Close House, and is set to take place in the final week of April.
Details of the tour’s full schedule will be announced over the winter, with more North East venues expected to feature.
Barry Hearn, chairman of the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour, said: “Close House is one of my favourite golf venues and I am thrilled that the EuroPro Tour will return there in 2017 in a continuation of a great long-term relationship.
“Of course, we are excited to see Close House host the British Masters next year but we expect the EuroPro Tour event to deliver just as much excitement when we return in April.”
