The DP World Tour continues in South Africa with its penultimate tournament before taking a break for Christmas while five Irish tee it up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the second LIV Golf Promotions event.
DP World Tour
Conor Purcell will make his season debut on the DP World Tour at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Golf Club.
This will be the first event of the 2025 season for Purcell who is now a full member of the DP World Tour for the first time after winning his tour card via the Challenge Tour last season.
The Portmarnock man won twice on the Challenge Tour last season en route to the Grand Final last month.
Purcell will be guaranteed minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2025 season if he plays in 15 or more events on the DP World Tour.
The 27-year-old should be confident that he can step up and make the grade at this level after 16 of the 21 Challenge Tour graduates kept their DP World Tour card and three of them, Matteo Manassero, Jesper Svensson and Frederic Lacroix, earned victories on the 2024 Race to Dubai, proving that the Challenge Tour is a strong breeding ground.
Tom McKibbin also returns to action following last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge where he finished 60th out of 66 players.
McKibbin earned dual membership of the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour at last month’s DP World Tour Championship where he birdied his final hole to clinch one of the ten available cards for the PGA TOUR.
LIV Promotions
Malone amateur Matthew McClean, Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy, Galway’s Liam Nolan, Laytown & Bettystown’s Alex Maguire and Kilkenny’s Mark Power are all in Riyadh for the second LIV Promotions event.
Just one LIV Golf League card is available for the 2025 season while the top 10 finishers, including ties, will earn full exemption into all 2025 events on The International Series, sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
It’s a big opportunity for Maguire and Power who do not have full status anywhere heading into 2025 while Nolan has Alps Tour status to fall back on if he is not successful this week.
Kennedy has already secured full Challenge Tour status for the 2025 campaign following a great performance at the Final Stage of DP World Tour Q-School.
The event boasts a $1.5 million purse with first place guaranteed a LIV card and $200,000.
FORMAT
The Event will consist of 4 rounds of 18-hole stroke play.
Round 1 (Thursday) – 18-hole stroke play, Top 20 and ties advance to Round 2
Round 2 (Friday) – Scores reset from Round 1, 18-hole stroke play, Top 20 advance to Rounds 3 & 4 (ties decided by play-off as necessary to reduce to 20 competitors)
Round 3 & 4 (Saturday) – Scores reset from Round 2, 36-hole stroke play (play-off only as needed to determine winner in the event of a tie for first place)
In the event of a delay in completing one or more of the scheduled Rounds, 15th December may be used as a full or partial playing day in order to complete the competition.
Ladies European Tour
Pre-Qualifying for the 2025 Ladies European Tour season begins this week across Morocco.
Amateur Canice Screene, Abigail O’Riordan and Olivia Mehaffey are teeing it up at Noria while Annabel Wilson is pencilled in for Samanah.
Anna Foster who recently clinched her maiden professional win in America is at Palm Ourika while amateurs Mairead Martin and Olivia Hunt are in Rotana.
All will be looking to join Sara Byrne in next week’s Final Stage.